/Curators
MARIE SECRET / SYLVIE ACHERE
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
When Pablo Picasso shared this quote, he was pointing to the power of a child’s gaze—capable of seeing the world with freshness, freedom, and imagination. That’s why we chose childhood portraits : because it is this renewed gaze, filled with unexpected associations, poetic images, and spontaneous analogies, that we call upon in octopus+ to continually reinvent our relationship with the arts—to try to escape convention while preserving wonder in the everyday, and to see art differently.
Marie Secret – Editorial and Festival Director
Marie Secret has charted a cosmopolitan and inspired path at the crossroads of visual arts, cinema, and writing. After settling in Geneva in the 1980s, she quickly embraced a nomadic lifestyle, moving between Paris, London, and New York from 1986 onwards. It was in New York that she met visionary gallerist Elga Wimmer, who became her mentor and introduced her to a vibrant and radical contemporary art scene. Under Wimmer's influence, Marie immersed herself in the world of contemporary art and simultaneously developed a lasting passion for cinema. Returning to Paris in 2000 with a wealth of diverse influences, she founded the festival “Art et 7e art”, a unique event dedicated to the dialogue between cinema and other forms of artistic expression: painting, sculpture, literature, and music. The festival has welcomed iconic guests such as Jerry Schatzberg and Vincent Gallo, and firmly established its transdisciplinary identity.Committed to supporting emerging artists, she also directs Espace R in Geneva — an artistic lab designed as a space for experimentation and young creation. Open to both students and professionals, it has become a hub for hybrid and socially engaged practices.Now based in Sauvelade, Marie Secret chairs the association Bande Originale and the creative company Octopus + SAS. She is the creator of an atypical editorial object — as much artistic as culinary — where words are simmered and dishes tell stories. The Octopus journal, both sensory and socially engaged, fully embodies her vision of living art: generous, inclusive, and deeply accessible.
/Curators
MARIE SECRET / SYLVIE ACHERE
Sylvie Acheré – Art Historian, Curator, Researcher and Visual Artist
Trained at the Beaux-Arts, Sylvie Acheré began her career as a press officer at Galerie Jacqueline Storme in Lille, where she had the opportunity to engage with major figures of the contemporary art scene such as Erró, Klasen, and Kijno. Driven by a desire to deepen her theoretical understanding, she turned to academic research in art history, earning a prestigious scholarship from the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles as part of her doctoral studies. In 2000, she was appointed curator of the major Kijno retrospective at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, marking the beginning of her ongoing commitment to promoting modern and contemporary art. Now a lecturer in Lille, she shares her passion for the visual arts, art history, and mediation methodologies, actively contributing to working groups focused on making art more accessible to diverse audiences. Her scholarly work includes regular contributions to exhibition catalogues and academic conferences, including talks for the INHA (Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art), such as La conscience parodique. Art et réflexivité, XIXe–XXe siècles (2008), Revues d’Art nouveau ? (2012), and De la transposition à la réinvention at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, later published in De nouveaux modèles de musées ? (L’Harmattan, 2007). More recently, she contributed entries to the Critical Dictionary of Art Historians Active in France from the Revolution to the First World War (2025).Since 2021, her publishing activities have continued notably through the journal Octopus, which has become a key platform for large-scale artistic collaborations. Among these, Night Fall Paris (2023) stands out as a major project, paving the way for the upcoming event Horses 2025.