Exposition – “Le ronronnement des machines”

The Maison de la Fontaine is hosting the exhibition ‘The Purr of Machines’ by artists Léticia Chanliau, Brieg Huon and Chloé Macary-Carney.

This is an opportunity for the artists to explore our relationship with machines through a playful and interactive exhibition aimed at all audiences, including the very youngest. The exhibition extends to the area around the Tour Tanguy with reproductions of drawings and paintings.

The exhibition:
Léticia Chanliau, Brieg Huon and Chloé Macary-Carney, three artists who live and work in Brest, present a playful exhibition that explores the nature of our relationship with machines. What are they for? Although these are objects that surround us and accompany us in our daily lives, we do not often take the time to observe them or try to understand them: we reduce them to their mere functionality. The exhibition encourages us to reflect on their capacity to bring us a sense of well-being, but also to try to understand our attachment to these machines, as well as the relationship of control that can sometimes result from it.

The exhibition begins indoors at the Maison de la Fontaine, centred around sculptures and installations, offering an immersive and participatory experience. A reading and relaxation area, furnished with ‘tool-cushions’ made during workshops with young people whilst the artists were in residence, also offers visitors the chance to discover testimonies from women and men whom the artists interviewed about their relationship with machines and tools.

The outdoor exhibition, displayed on panels installed around the Tour Tanguy, showcases reproductions of drawings and paintings created as part of these interviews. During these exchanges, the artists captured what the interviewees carried in their pockets to create relief portraits of them and reveal the beauty and strangeness of their modern talismans – ‘trinket tray’ images inspired by the work of Louis-Léopold Boilly.

Two exhibition venues:

La Maison de la Fontaine
Near the Tanguy Tower, Square Pierre Péron

Exhibition opening hours
Tuesday to Saturday from 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm; Wednesday from 10 am to 12 noon and from 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm.
Closed on Sundays, Mondays and public holidays
As part of European Heritage Days, the exhibition will be open on Sunday 20 September from 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm.
Meet-the-artist sessions


Open to the general public (no booking required):
Saturday 20 June from 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm
Sunday 20 September from 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm – special opening as part of the European Heritage Days.