Cartographie des possibles
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22 engravings, 9.5 × 15 cm
Hélia Aluai Espace Berger
17 September to 15 October 2026
Opening on 17 September 2026 · Free admission
With Cartographie des possibles, Hélia Aluai, one of the twelve Visages du MAF (the museum's founding artists), presents her first major venture into engraving.
The exhibition brings together 22 engravings created during 2025. Taking the Tarot de Marseille as its starting point, these prints mark the artist's first significant immersion in the art of engraving, a pivotal step in the evolution of her practice.
Through this series, Hélia Aluai weaves a dialogue between memory, material and gesture, drawing correspondences between form, trace and narrative, and summoning imaginaries that move between the intimate and the collective.
Each print unfolds a sensory world in which textures, rhythms and perceptions intertwine to question what is transformed and what is passed on.
The exhibition invites us into a world where engraving becomes a ground for experimentation, reflection and revelation.
About the Tarot
The Tarot originated in fifteenth-century Italy as a deck of 78 cards, among which 22 stand apart: the major arcana, from The Fool (0) to The World (21). These cards trace a symbolic path through the great stages of existence, its initiatory trials, inner transformations and spiritual accomplishments.
Over the centuries, the Tarot moved well beyond its playful origins to become a tool for reflection, called upon in divination as much as in psychological analysis or artistic creation. Each major arcanum embodies a universal archetype, such as Strength, Death or The Lovers, offering a richly expressive visual language to give form to the soul's transformations.
The artist
Of Portuguese origin, Hélia Aluai first studied at the Fine Arts school of Porto before gaining a master's degree in architecture. Based in Lausanne for several years, she has developed an artistic practice rooted mainly in drawing and embroidery. Marked by a deep black, her work is run through with themes such as memory, buried emotions and intimate imaginaries. Strongly informed by gothic and Victorian aesthetics, it engages in a deliberate dialogue with the codes of horror cinema.
Among her notable projects are the first two volumes of the graphic novel La Source de nos Peurs, created in collaboration with screenwriter Nicolas Di Meo, a body of work that earned her the City of Lausanne's creation grant in 2026. Alongside her personal practice, Hélia Aluai also develops social and participatory art projects.
The recipient of several international awards, she exhibits regularly in Switzerland and abroad. Between architectural rigour and artistic sensibility, Hélia Aluai creates works that are at once intimate and poetic, asserting a singular voice within the contemporary art landscape.