Saint-Malo

In 2000, the French ministries of Justice and Culture joined forces to commission Isabelle Bonzom to do an on-site mural project in a jail as part of their objectives of prisoner rehabilitation.

In the jailhouse of Saint-Malo, on the coast of Brittany, Isabelle created a comprehensive pictorial program specific to the space and its residents and inspired by the theme of the sea.

Volunteer inmates participated in one portion of the project. Trained by Isabelle Bonzom, they painted on the walls of their computer room, in the stairways of their prison and in the corridor leading to the visitors'area.

Isabelle worked on the three floors on the large detention area where the cells are located. She creates relationships between floors. Her 26 images, that she painted in oil on the walls, suggested a process of positive transformation and evoked adaptation and flexibility.

A catalogue and a film document this unique mural experience in a prison. Featured in the catalogue is a conversation between Isabelle Bonzom and art critic/psychotherapist Paola Cocchi. Click here to read the French catalogue.