Gaëlle Obiégly

Born in Chartres in 1971, Gaëlle Obiégly studied art history (in) at Paris IV University and began Russian studies (in) at Inalco. Her literary experience starts in the early 2000s with her first roman novel published by the Éditions Gallimard that reflects her interest (on the) in Russian literature, Petite figurine qui tourne dans une boite à musique. Since then, she has published seven books including Mon Prochain (Éditions verticales), which has received the Mac Orlan prize.

Gaëlle Obiégly’s project at Villa Medici is to recount the story of a person without memory. Stranded on a bench at the train station in Rome, he tries to find his own identity, but in doing so, a new identity creates itself. The everyday life of a floundering figure whose existence becomes a process of discovery . The life that preceded this new condition may have created it, but so has his current quest. This individual passes from abstract research to concrete hunting. It is a kind of epic, a series of actions in an Italy that has been appropriated. And, at the same time, we imagine the daily life of a destitute person as opposed to the place from which it’s told—namely, a looming retreat.”