Mathilde Nourrisson is a visual artist and puppet manufacturer. After graduating in printmaking from the École Estienne, followed by a master’s degree in plastic arts from the Sorbonne, it was in 2020 that she built her first human-sized puppet. Since then, her large family of puppets has gone from strength to strength.

As a multimedia artist, she stages her textile puppets in installations and videos. Sensitive to notions of injunction, difference and community, she builds her folklore and strange characters with tenderness. Her works engage the sense of touch through their soft, supple or gentle materiality. Always manipulable, her characters remain puppets, although the artist draws on the figures of the comforter, the robot and the scarecrow.

In 2023, she embarked on a 6-month trip to Japan to discover Japanese puppetry in all its forms. Her dissertation on the theme of the anthropomorphic object was commended by the jury, bringing her trip to a close and confirming her fascination with puppetry. Since then, her work has been exhibited at the Bastille Design Center as part of the AMMA Sorbonne Prize. She also worked for almost 5 months in her studio, which was open to the public in the 59 Rivoli after-squat, before exhibiting her work in the venue’s gallery.

When she’s not in her studio, she works in puppet shows for various companies.

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→ @mathilde.nourrisson