Romane Charlot: Luminous Structures in Tension

Romane Charlot

Born: Île-de-France, France

Based in: Montrouge / Paris, France

Medium: Installation, Performance, Blown Glass, Stained Glass

Education: École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, DNSEP, 2024 — Studio Nathalie Talec Glassblowing, Centre d'art verrier de Meisenthal, 2023 Stained Glass, Hélène Braud, 2022

Recent Exhibitions: ÇA TOURNE , Finale — L'art et la vie et inversement, 2025 Mondes Nouveaux , Beaux-Arts de Paris Crush , Beaux-Arts de Paris Château de Champs-sur-Marne, France Galerie HD, Paris (Colporteur collective) Le Kiosque art center, Mayenne La Villa Belleville, Paris

Grant: Action Logement Seqens — One Building, One Artwork

Website: romanecharlot.com

Photography: © Salomé Dahéron, © Simon Desmura

Image Courtesy: Courtesy the Artist

Romane Charlot – Installation & Sculptural Light Practice

Romane Charlot develops installations composed of luminous glass sculptures positioned between object, instrument and machine. Working primarily with colored glass and metal structures, she activates light as a structural element rather than an atmospheric effect. Her works reorganize space through projection, reflection and shadow, producing temporary constellations that shift with the viewer’s movement.

Her practice draws on early optical devices and image technologies, as well as systems associated with spectacle and labor. The sculptures function individually yet gain clarity when assembled, forming collective arrangements that operate like silent systems of coordination. Each element contributes to a shared spatial logic. Activation remains possible, but not necessary; the works hold tension between potential performance and suspended stillness.

Rooted in a memory of working class culture from Northern France, Charlot’s installations reference collective production, repetition and manual gestures. Materials guide decisions in an intuitive process she describes as bricolage. Craft and industrial logic remain deliberately unresolved. The result is not nostalgic reconstruction but a structured negotiation between light, labor and shared form.

Romane Charlot: ÇA TOURNE, 2024, Steel, glass, blown glass, tin, various dimensions Beaux-Arts de Paris © Salomé Dahéron

ÇA TOURNE - By Aurore Forray

Conceived as a jam session, a short performance is performed by several artists who activate objects crafted by the artist. A gentle poetry unfolds as a performer rings a glass bell, followed by the rhythm of a metronome.

Each instrument affects the others and alters the dynamics of the sound piece. Thus, the specific characteristics of the sounds become integrated into the choreography, from which emerges a melody that is both controlled and improvised.

Romane Charlot creates objects inspired by everyday life, combining steel and stained glass, sometimes blowing glass. Like an inventor, she exploits the translucent aspect of the material to allow light and color to move through space. The spotlights placed on the ground refract irregular shapes, suggesting shadow puppetry. While the light is fixed, the artworks themselves are in motion. The simple mechanisms give them a handcrafted look, like the circular support, which evokes certain proto-cinema techniques.

When a ball takes on the size of a balloon, the change of scale reinforces the humorous effect of its approach. Like a cabinet of curiosities, the prototypes of objects in progress are arranged on shelves. Deploying a dreamlike universe at a fairground event, Romane Charlot deliberately immerses us in childhood.

Aurore Forray Text written for the Finale edition, l'Art La Vie Et Inversement

Instagram Romane Charlot

Notable Artworks Romane Charlot

Romane Charlot:(left) HELSIX, 2023 Verre, acier, étain 50 x 30 x 160 cm © Salomé Dahéron (right) HELSIX, 2023 Verre, acier, étain 50 x 30 x 160 cm © Salomé Dahéron

Romane Charlot: GRAINS DE VERRE, 2025 Glass, steel, tin, 35 × 80 cm Activatable stained glass - ROUET DE VERRE, 2025 Glass, steel, tin, 100 × 60 cm Activatable stained glass © Simon Desmura

Romane Charlot: (left) CARROUSEL, 2024 Bois, étain, cuivre 50x 70 cm © Salomé Dahéron(right) ROULEAU, 2024 Bois, étain, verre, cuivre 30x45cm © Salomé Dahéron

Romane Charlot: CHEVAL ET VOITURE DE VERRE, 2024 Wood, tin, glass, copper © Salomé Dahéron

Related Readings:

Featured

Verena Issel Installation And Object Artist In Focus

Read More

Exhibition

Call Someone at ayayay

Read More

Interview

Kevin A. Rausch on Process, Memory, and Material

Read More