Elsa Prudent creates drawings, paintings, and installations that question the relationship between memory, identity, and transgenerational heritage.

Prudent will use her time at Wysing to develop a new body of work centered around a secret society of Afro-descendant women working for the renewal of the planet. During her stay, she will be working on a new series of paintings using natural and ancient techniques. She also plans to spend time experimenting in Wysing’s ceramic studio and developing a new performance piece.  

Elsa Prudent’s residency is part of Magnetic, a joint Franco-UK initiative under the umbrella of Fluxus Art Projects that brings together ten institutions to create a network of artist residencies in French regions and UK nations. 

Magnetic is supported by the Institut français du Royaume-Uni, the Institut français, French Ministry of Culture, French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, Arts Council of Wales/Wales Arts International, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the British Council. 

Biography 

Elsa Prudent is an artist living and working between Bordeaux and Paris. Select projects include Phantom Itineraries, CAPC, Bordeaux (2024); Don’t Feed Your Ghosts, They’ll Come Back Hungry! Driftproject, Marseille (2023); and Enjoy the Silence, Eliane Project, Bordeaux (2022). In 2022, she was artist-in-residence for The Astéries* Project, a research residency looking at the colonial history of Bayonne, Bordeaux and La Rochelle. 

Elsa Prudent stands in front of Ben Wilson’s ‘Tree Keep’ (1993), Magnetic residency at Wysing Arts Centre. Photo: Lucy Rose Shaftain-Fenner.