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Ophélie Dozat

2023-09-19_Ritratti Borsisti 2023-2024_©Daniele Molajoli_Ophélie Dozat_08

Fellow
2023 - 2024

Architecture

Biography

Ophélie Dozat (France, 1993) is an architect, teacher and researcher. A 2018 graduate of ENSA Versailles and EHESS, she is pursuing a doctorate in architecture at École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Versailles (ENSA-V) and the University of Cergy-Pontoise, with a research project questioning the aesthetic role of the retaining wall in the construction of landscapes.

Trained at 2A+PA (Rome) and DOGMA (Brussels), ECOLE and N. Simon Architectes (Paris), she co-founded her own Materra-Matang architectural practice in Paris in 2022. Her practice develops around an acute analysis of inhabited and natural environments, with the strong intention of connecting architecture to its soil. A teacher at ENSA-V, she also collaborates on research projects on territorial and urban planning, which have been the subject of exhibitions at the Biennale d’Architecture et de Paysage (2019) and at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal with the “Scénarios Futurs” project, winner of the FAIREPARIS competition (2020).

 

Project

Entitled Substruction, his project for Villa Medici proposes a re-reading of Rome’s retaining walls, viewing them as aesthetic objects of urban space, and as vehicles for narratives and collective interaction. Through a survey of the city’s palimpsest-walls and the production of metaphorical objects inspired by them, his project aims to appropriate the walls that surround us in an attempt to qualify them and reinscribe them in the field of aesthetics. From work of art to work of art, the retaining wall goes beyond its initial technical function, as a tangible element that opens up new habitable potentials in urban space.

April 15, 2025 saw the inauguration of a pavilion she built with her studio Mattera-Matang in the historic gardens of the Palazzo Farnese, headquarters of the French Embassy in Rome. The pavilion is a continuation of her research at Villa Medici, which focused on the use of derelict stone, abandoned after renovation work, to give it a new lease of life and harmonize it with the façade. Between conservation and experimentation, this pavilion illustrates the desire to reuse this heritage of the past, lying at the bottom of church cellars and in the underground passages of historic monuments, to sublimate them and integrate them into a new architectural project in Rome.

His website

Portrait photo © Daniele Molajoli
Portrait video © Laurent Perreau for the Académie de France à Rome – Villa Médicis

  • Pavilion under construction at the Palazzo Farnese

After residency

Production grant

publication

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All our tears

in co-production with Éditions Cambourakis

2026

Based on the death of a mother crushed by anti-feminism and dissolved in the water of a river, a text found in the deceased’s personal belongings and the emergence of memories of what was experienced as a child, this book aims to reflect on the socio-historical condition of women and gender minorities who suffer violence and live with the dead. With overwhelming intensity, Clovis Maillet Monory’s family and historical investigation brilliantly interweaves our intimate and collective mourning.

This book is co-produced by the production grant Éditions Cambourakis x La Villa Médicis.

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Production grant

exhibition

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By mistake and at random

in co-production with Maison Salvan

11.03 - 02.05.2026

Nicolas Daubanes compares two creative sites of very different scales: the Villa Medici, a prestigious Roman residence, and the Maison Salvan, a modest village house that has become an artistic home. He thus engages in a conversation with works and historical figures such as Galileo, Ingres, Velázquez and Courbet. While some of his earlier works are also on display, the exhibition mainly features recent works from his ongoing research.

This exhibition is co-produced as part of the Maison Salvan x Villa Medici production grant.

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Prince of Monaco – Villa Medici Artistic Grant

The Inner Fire

2026

Fellow at the Villa Medici in 2024–2025, Nicolas Daubanes is the recipient of the first Prince of Monaco – Villa Medici Artistic Grant for the year 2025. In this context, he is developing the project Le feu intérieur (‘The Inner Fire’) inspired by the architecture and collections of the Villa. Nicolas Daubanes revisits the works of artists associated with the Villa, including François-Marius Granet, Camille Corot, Diego Velázquez and the engravings of Piranèse, using the photogram technique. He creates images in which light becomes matter, thanks to the photosensitive revelation of projected steel sparks.

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Production grant

publication

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The great method

in co-production with La fabrique éditions

2026

An Algerian immigrant family sets off to bury their father back home. During this journey, disturbed by apparitions, something begins to unravel: the secrets of the people that exile fails to make them forget.
La grande méthode is the latest book by Louisa Yousfi, fellow in 2024-2025, and explores the delicate seam between the visible world and the invisible worlds that persist in the shadows and still inhabit “Western” minds.

This book was co-produced under the La fabrique éditions x Villa Medici production grant.

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Production grant

symposium

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Preserving human remains

22.01 - 23.01.2026 - Paris

Former fellow Laure Cadot (2023-2024) is organizing and taking part in the international symposium “Preserving human remains” at the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. These meetings on new approaches to conservation and the care of human remains in institutions aim to highlight and discuss professional practices in the light of contemporary issues surrounding this unique heritage.

This symposium is co-produced as part of the Louis Roederer Foundation grant.

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Production grant

exhibition

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Une pierre sous la langue

in co-production with Frac Franche-Comté

17.10.2025 - 01.03.2026 - Besançon

The exhibition Une pierre sous la langue (A Stone Under the Tongue) refers to a Saharan poem that recommends putting a stone under the tongue to forget, and throwing it towards the sun to remember… It brings together works created between 2021 and 2024, including two pieces from the Frac collection, as well as previously unseen works created especially for the occasion, notably during the artist’s stay at Villa Medici as a resident.

This exhibition is co-produced as part of the Louis Roederer Foundation grant.

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Production grant

exhibition

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Resources: Act #2

Bienal de São Paulo

in co-production with Bienal de São Paulo

06.09.2025 - 11.01.2026 - São Paulo

Conceived in the form of a pontoon, Les Ressources : Acte #2 (2025) is a monumental installation acting as a ship carrying found objects such as fragments of wood, ropes and jerrycans, reminiscent of all the boats that sail the open sea and, by extension, fishing activities.

This installation is co-produced as part of the Louis Roederer Foundation grant.

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!Viva Villa! project

exhibition

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Yvonne Rainer: A Reader

in co-production with Crac Occitanie

11.10.2025 - 15.02.2026 - Sète

The exhibition takes its title from the English term ” reader “, which refers both to a publication containing a collection of texts by an author, and to the very position of reader. This unprecedented format is extended to the context of a transdisciplinary exhibition: although it has the appearance of a monograph, this exhibition brings together a multiplicity of artists, performers and researchers, whose voices resonate around Yvonne Rainer.

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Palladium palms

!Viva Villa! project

exhibition

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Sensitive machine

in co-production with Cité des Arts de la Réunion

03.10.2025 - 31.01.2026 - Saint-Denis, Reunion Island

“Machine sensible” is an exhibition of digital, technological, trans- and multi-media works by Mounir Ayache, Diane Cescutti, Abel Techer and Raphaëlle Von Knebel, whose creations are born of a renewed attention to and mastery of textile creation, design, painting and sculpture. Each artist, through his or her visual and plastic language, questions the evolution of our condition as being-in-the-world and our coexistence on real and/or virtual territories by setting up narratives whose fictional imaginations invite us to better embrace our shared futures.

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Production grant

Tempesta

in co-production with Un Éte au Havre, Chevaldeuxtrois

01.06 - 31.08.2025 - Le Havre

Set in little-known parts of Le Havre, Tempesta echoes the myth of Prometheus and the history of the city’s destruction. In a tableau that brings together the present and the ancient, Mali Arun summons young dancers into a world of light and shadow. Chevaldeuxtrois and Un Été Au Havre present, in coproduction with the Académie de France à Rome – Villa Médicis, a film by Mali Arun produced by Jérémy Forni.

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