Emilie Pierson

Born to a Bulgarian mother and a French father, Émilie Pierson questions Bulgarian identity and heritage. Through images, objects, sculptures, and narratives, she explores rituals and traditions, the communist political past, popular culture, and Orthodox religion. She observes their traces, transformations, and cohabitation in contemporary society. She moves back and forth between past and present, between intimate and collective history, between France and Bulgaria.

A graduate of the École Supérieure d’Art de Lorraine with a DNSEP in 2018, Émilie Pierson continues her artistic practice in Metz. In 2019, she was selected for the 69th edition of Jeune Création at the Fiminco Foundation and represented her adopted city at the Robert Schuman Art Prize 2020 at Cercle Cité in Luxembourg. Her work is supported by major institutions such as FRAC Lorraine and FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, which present and disseminate her short film НA ЧЕРНО МОРЕ — À la Mer Noire in France and internationally, notably at Te Tuhi, in Auckland (New Zealand). She has benefited from several residencies and creative support programs, including a creation grant from DRAC Grand Est in 2021 and the Visual Arts Emergence Support program from the Grand Est Region, in partnership with Bliiida, where she is an emerging artist from 2023 to 2025. In 2024, she was nominated for the Edward Steichen Award in Luxembourg, and in 2025, her work Milles pensées à toi will enter the FRAC Lorraine collection. The same year, she will exhibit in the CeCiL’s Box at Cercle Cité in Luxembourg. Concurrently, she is a member of the Riveté collective, alongside Cécile Rivet and Lucile Taïeb, with whom she develops exhibition curation projects and highlights local artists.