Irina Rasquinet

Irina Rasquinet is a Russian artist born in 1974 in Chechnya. Having grown up in a country at war, she defines herself as an artist with “vacant roots”. As a teenager, she moves to go to university in Russia, where she joins an experimental art school in Moscow. There she learned to unleash her creativity, but eager to open up new perspectives, she moved in Paris in 1997 to join the School of Decorative Arts. 

 Fascinated by the French language which enjoys a particular aura in Russian-speaking cultural circles, Irina Rasquinet relies on puns or expressions endowed with a poetic and surrealist scope for those who discover them and practice them for the first time. 

With works entitled Roule-moi une pelle (2007), Terre à Terre (2008), Langue de bois (2008) or Nature (su)pendue (2008), Irina Rasquinet takes a fresh and imaginative look at these expressions from spoken language, and makes them resonate with themes that are dear to her, such as love, identity or nature. From her fanciful and costume jewellery (created notably for Jean-Charles de Castelbajac’s house), to her monumental sculptures, the playful and abundant universe of Irina Rasquinet blossoms. Releasing her childish gaze, the artist offers spontaneous, direct and uncalculated creations, freed from all conceptual baggage, which humorously question the realities of our contemporary world.