Artist Laure Winants in the spotlight

November 5 to December 12, 2026

An artist-researcher based between Paris and Brussels, Laure Winants explores the interaction of ecosystems through the dialogue between matter and light. Her works, which are sensitive to their environments, respond to light, time, temperature, and humidity.
The collections of the Museum of Mineralogy each bear witness, in their own way, to a relationship with time: fossils, for example, evoke the remnants of a bygone era that endures, while quartz, used in watchmaking, allows us to measure the passage of time.
Drawing inspiration from the Museum’s rich and diverse collection, the artist creates a tension between three temporal scales: the geological time of minerals and crystallization, the biological time of marine organisms, and the contemporary time of ongoing transformations.
By highlighting the interdependence of these three temporalities, Laure Winants constructs her reflection, which centers on a common thread found throughout her work: time sheds light.
By developing experimental sculptural forms made from limestone and biological fragments, Winants creates a resonance between the marine fossils in the collections (limestone, shells, petrified organisms) and her contemporary fossils. Her pieces, which are at times speculative, offer a vision of fossilization not as a closed phenomenon, but as a process that is definitively active.

Time Capsule Spectrogram, by Laure Winants.  © Laure Winants

About Photo Saint-Germain

Held in the heart of Paris, in the iconic Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, PhotoSaintGermain is an annual festival dedicated to promoting photographic art, directed by Aurélia Marcadier. PhotoSaintGermain offers a free, open-access exhibition circuit at a selection of museums, cultural centers, galleries, and bookstores on the Left Bank, featuring a rich and eclectic program curated by partner galleries, as well as several original exhibitions and exclusive projects conceived and produced by the festival.

By offering such a rich and varied photographic experience, the festival has become a flagship event in Paris during the month of November. Complementing these exhibitions, PhotoSaintGermain offers a related program featuring talks, screenings, book signings, and studio visits, bringing together various figures from the contemporary photography scene.

The festival thus attracts a broad audience, including photography professionals, collectors, and gallery and museum enthusiasts.