The association SMAC (Santé Mentale dans l’art contemporain, or Mental Health in Contemporary Art) was founded in 2023 by Audrey Couppé de Kermadec (artist, author and journalist), Daisy Lambert (independent curator) and Priscilia Adam (music entrepreneur and member of CURA) as part of the Prix Utopi·e. Its aim is to support the mental health of people working in the arts. Among its activities, the “Apéros Santé Mentale” (Mental Health  ) offer a forum in which to share therapeutic tools with experts and overcome the isolation of artists and practitioners in the contemporary art world. In parallel, the association plans to carry out a national survey to raise awareness among institutions of the specific psychological needs of this field, and to create an online resource platform. To date, SMAC has worked at Magasins Généraux, Consulat Voltaire, Palais de Tokyo and Artagon Pantin.

Independent curator and researcher Daisy Lambert has taken part in several group exhibition projects in France and abroad. Since 2022, she has been working independently on a number of projects. She has worked with Spot Production Fund (Istanbul, Turkey); Cneai (Centre national édition art image, Pantin); Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, Netherlands); Le Lac (Brussels, Belgium); Le CAC Brétigny (Brétigny sur Orge), Villa Arson (Nice); Le Frac Ile de France et la Fondation Fiminco (Romainville); SAVYY Contemporary (Berlin).

Committed to the study of mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion within cultural institutions, she produces curatorial projects that are as much tools for reflection as for agentivity on systemic and dominant knowledge and ways of thinking.

In 2024, she received the Cnap research grant in art theory and criticism to further her study on the resurgence of quimbois in contemporary artistic practices. She is particularly interested in the (re)activation and enrichment of its bestiary and the use of an Antillean pharmacopoeia as a strategy of resistance.

She regularly takes part in workshops and conferences on the challenges of showing the work of black Afro-descendant artists, mental health and care practices (Dublin Fringe Festival, Prix Utopi-e, Le Consulat Voltaire, Palais de Tokyo). In 2023, she co-founded the SMAC collective.

Audrey Couppé de Kermadec is a non-binary artist, performer, poet, and researcher born in 1992. With origins from Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Haiti, they were born in Paris where they studied and currently live. In 2023, they co-founded the SMAC collective alongside Daisy Lambert and Priscilia Adam, dedicated to mental health in contemporary art. They are one of the winners of the 2023 Prix Utopi·e. Audrey has collaborated with institutions such as the Palais de Tokyo, the Fondation d’entreprise Pernod Ricard, Les Magasins Généraux, the gallery Praz Delavallade (Paris), Le Sample (Bagnolet), and La Fête du Slip (Lausanne). Their first book, Prier dans l’intestin du monde, will be published on March 7, 2025, by éditions trouble.

Audrey Couppé de Kermadec’s transdisciplinary practice combines digital drawing, painting, poetry, video and performance. They draw inspiration from marronnage, quimbois, and mangroves, using these references as portals to explore questions of identity, collective resistance, and coloniality. Their ecopoetic approach is a deep, intimate exploration of the connections between queerness, political rest, Blackness, the sacred, the human and the non-human. Their works create moments of chosen inertia, sketching the contours of clandestine and utopian landscapes where marginalised bodies both luxuriate and revolt. Their work reflects a solarpunk universe in which invasive, stagnant nature serves as a salvific cocoon.

Born in 1997, Priscilia Adam lives and works between Paris and Marseille. An entrepreneur in the music industry and a member of the CURA collective, which advocates for mental health in the music industry, she has always been passionate about helping artists emerge and developing their careers.

The notion of mental health has long been of interest to her, and she dedicated her research topic at the end of her studies to the question of the music industry’s responsibility towards the mental health of artists. In May 2023, she co-hosted a talk on artists’ mental health as part of the Prix Utopi-e alongside Audrey Couppé de Kermadec and Daisy Lambert. Following this event, she decided to join forces with Audrey and Daisy and co-create the SMAC collective, in order to respond to questions about mental health in contemporary art.

Instagram

→ @smac.collectif

→ @audreycdk

→ @daisyr.less

→ @prisci.adm