Johanna Dumet is a French painter known for her colorful and expressive works. She lives and works in Berlin. In this episode, she talks about her artistic process behind the new tarot deck she created, and how her family history, her sense of the present moment as well as her encounters with new places — in this case, Öhningen on Lake Constance, where she spent four weeks in summer 2025 as an artist-in-residence as part of Kultur.Konvent.Öhningen — influence her work. FYI: This episode is in english, just the intro is in german! Here is an excerpt from the text she wrote for the exhibition in the "Konventsaal" of the former Augustinian Canons’ Monastery:"Dear visitors, Perhaps you have already come across tarot cards — maybe you have played with them, feared them, or used them for divination. As far as we know, tarot cards first appeared in 1440 in northern Italy, where they were called charte da trionfi (“cards of triumph”). At that time, hand-painted cards were precious objects commissioned by wealthy Italian families. The oldest known deck belonged to the Visconti family, who owned at least eleven hand-painted decks. Today, the so-called Visconti–Sforza Tarot (dating from 1452) has been reissued and is available commercially. The cards spread across Europe, especially to France. The oldest deck found in Avignon dates back to 1505. In 2025, a new discovery was made: during an auction, a Tarot de Marseille from 1639 surfaced — the oldest known deck of the world-famous Tarot de Marseille to date. I have known tarot since childhood. My grandmother used to read the cards, but I was never allowed to be present or to touch or play with her deck. To this day, I have never seen her cards. Since 2019, I have been working with tarot myself. With the help of many books, I tried to teach myself the art of cartomancy, but I soon discovered that my own path with tarot lies in painting the cards — in helping the images live on through time. I have painted the 22 Major Arcana several times, and on September 9, I will open a large exhibition at König Galerie in Berlin, titled Fool for a Lifetime, featuring 22 oil paintings on canvas and three outdoor card sculptures. Before the opening, I accepted an invitation from Kultur.Konvent.Öhningen and decided to create a complete deck of 78 cards during my one-month residency — a deck that will later be made available for purchase. The surroundings were perfect for focus and inspiration. The cards you see today were painted in the tradition of the Tarot de Marseille, following its symbolism. However, the illustrations (especially on the 56 minor cards) were freely created. They reflect my own thoughts on tarot symbolism and are inspired by my daily life around the monastery and the town of Öhningen, as well as by impressions gathered during my visit to Stein am Rhein. Johanna Dumet (born 1991 in Guéret, France) brings a contemporary pulse to the tradition of still life. Her expressive canvases transform familiar motifs — meals, flowers, fruits — into vibrant, emotion-charged compositions. Working intuitively with oil, gouache, and collage, Dumet captures not only objects, but also the atmosphere that surrounds them: a meeting just dispersed, the echo of a conversation, the silence after a celebration. Color plays a central role in her work. Her palette tends toward boldness and surprise, spontaneity and structure. Tables are set and cleared, wildflowers are framed and multiplied, and objects — sometimes humble, sometimes lavish — are imbued with a sense of memory and presence. In series and large-scale installations, she reinterprets domestic scenes as collective portraits and gestures of intimacy. Dumet studied Applied Arts in La Souterraine and Fashion Design in Marseille before moving to Berlin, where she now lives and works."Photo: Klaus Becker
