Arts Thread

The French director Céline Sciamma, known for films such as Tomboy (2011) and Girlhood (2014), is behind Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019). The film follows Marianne and Héloïse in 18th-century France, where Marianne is commissioned to paint Héloïse’s portrait before her arranged marriage. The film unfolds the women’s forbidden relationship, shaped by restraint, attention, and the experience of observing and being observed as an object. It also explores themes of freedom, women’s position in society, and art. Photographer Birthe Piontek works within a contemporary and understated visual language. She portrays people in familiar, everyday spaces that are often slightly staged or subtly removed from reality. Her images focus on how meaning is created through the act of looking. In contrast to the aristocratic setting of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Piontek’s work is rooted in a contemporary and relatable reality. Nevertheless, both Piontek and Sciamma engage with ideas of the gaze, relationships, and shared understanding. My collection explores the tension between seeing and being seen, while also shedding light on how women have historically been represented and viewed according to the terms of others rather than their own.