BIOGRAPHY
MADDIE MARONE
(b. 1996, USA) is a Swiss-based artist and researcher in Performance, Actionism, and Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs).
Marone graduated with an MFA from La Haute École d'Art et de Design (HEAD) in Geneva after studies at The New School and London Contemporary Dance School.
Her works have been exhibited and performed at spaces including: Sofia Underground International Performance Festival (Bulgaria), Arsenic (Lausanne), Espace Topic (Geneva), Lokal-Int (Bienne), Faito Doc Festival (Italy), and Musée d’Art et Histoire (Geneva).
Marone is the co-founder of Sensorium, an association based in Geneva, alongside artistic partners, L. Meïko Touraille, Alina Trionow, and Marco Galletti. Currently, they are in the process of develeping Sensorium practices and manifestos. They often work out of an artist-organized residency at Les Molunes, an off-grid Jura mountain house in France. Their practice is rooted in international collaboration creating intersections between artists in diverse disciplines.
Marone's practice Theatre of the Sensorial helped lead to the of creation of Sensorium.Through this collective and methodology, a diverse constellation of international artists have committed to exploring ritualized action scores in an avant-garde manner, and sharing and supporting each other's initiatives in residencies and exhibitions. As this community grows, Marone's work continues to emphasize the experiences of participants, investigating altered consciousness states and catharsis through structured yet flexible methodologies.
Essential themes in Marone’s work include pain, pleasure, sex, food, and death. Her research delves into intimacy, identity, and the body, treating the human form as both a material and a site of inquiry. Her technique of Body Manipulation pushes the limits of physical and psychological thresholds, interrogating care, fragility, and transgression. While she prioritizes spaces of care, she challenges the notion of ‘safe spaces’ by inviting participants to explore beyond comfort zones.
Marone’s research navigates the space between reality and staged performance. She subverts expectations by rendering the tangible invisible and the ephemeral material.
Testing the adaptability of herself, her actors, and her audiences, she fosters a heightened state of presence and encourages us all to «Be Here, Now »
ARTISTS STATEMENT
“I work with liberty and lucidity. My practice is in constant evolution, encompassing trance states and altered consciousness in both actors and audiences. I integrate olfactory and gustatory mechanisms, meditation, music, dance, substances, and synesthetic devices to shape immersive, sensory Gesamtkunstwerk. My research examines memory through physical and ephemeral traces: scars, beauty marks, tattoos, used cigarettes, self-reflections, and the remnants of past lovers. These artifacts serve as markers of time, unraveling layered narratives within my works. My performers' bodies become living archives, sites of continuous negotiation and transformation.
My character research fluctuates between archetypal roles: warrior, mother, goddess, shaman, wife. I explore the interplay of these roles and their lingering imprints on the human condition. My work engages with themes of liberation and fascination—examining men, children, the kitchen, and the church—blurring the boundaries between daily life and art.
Drawing inspiration from Paganism, Wicca, Butoh, Gutai, Feminist and Viennese Actionism, Living Theatre, Vipassana meditation, Movement Research, Fluxus, Dada, and Happenings, my work manifests as performance or its residual relics. Every action is part of a theatrum mundi, a total theater of existence. I am not concerned with achieving a definitive outcome; rather, I embrace temporality as an ever-present force. The monotony of daily life and existential ennui are crucial—serving as catalysts for transgression, transformation, and renewal.” - Maddie Marone