Anima, Animae

The beauty of being oneself - Mai Khanh Pham To, painting and embroidery

Anima, Animae "In the rope, the soul is the core around which the threads wind, the solid heart that holds the whole together without being visible." For its new autumn exhibition, Villa Sonneville, a contemporary art gallery-house set in a 1926 Art Deco mansion in Roubaix, brings together two artists around a shared inner quest: that of the anima. From 3 September to 14 November 2026, the paintings and embroideries of Mai Khanh Pham To enter into a dialogue with the ceramics of Elisa Uberti, set within the lived-in rooms of the villa.

Touching the soul of the soul

The psychoanalyst Carl Jung distinguished the persona, the mask we present to the world to put on a "good face", from individuation, the path that consists of integrating every part of oneself, including one's shadows. Society trains us for acceptability rather than wholeness; to rediscover the latter, Jung invites us to embrace the anima, that inner part, a bridge between the conscious self and the unconscious, often ignored or hidden. In the work of Mai Khanh Pham To, it escapes, expresses itself and is set free: casting off masks, exposing vulnerability, letting wildness reclaim its rights. In the work of Elisa Uberti, it is nurtured and protected, like an inner flame that must never be allowed to go out.

The Sentinels

Elisa Uberti, Ceramics

What if the earth remembered a time before forms? Elisa Uberti shapes raw stoneware, left bare and unglazed, using the ancient coil-building technique, which grants her total freedom. From her hands emerge sentinels, beacons, creatures escaped from a mythological bestiary, in a resolutely animist spirit. Refuge-grottos, frozen fountains, fringes of suspended time: an ode to protecting the deepest soul of our being. Some pieces take on utilitarian functions (wall lights, lamps, mirrors), without ever forsaking their sculptural singularity.

• Visit by appointment only

Tuesdays and Saturdays from 8 September to 14 November.