Léo Marin Appointed Director of URDLA

Christine Vaisse, President, and the Board of Directors are pleased to announce that Léo Marin has been appointed Director of URDLA.

For more than ten years, he oversaw the artistic and curatorial direction of Galerie Éric Mouchet (Paris & Brussels). In 2025, he was appointed General Curator of the Beaufort27 Triennial (Belgium). He is also currently Vice-President of A.I.C.A. France and a member of the Board of Directors of C-E-A.

He will take up his position at URDLA on 17 March 2026.

What is URDLA?

URDLA is a printmaking workshop, an art gallery, and a place of transmission.

Each year, URDLA selects artists and invites them to take part in residencies. Coming from diverse backgrounds, aesthetics, and generations, these artists are given the opportunity to practise original printmaking using the equipment and technical support provided on site.

Located in Villeurbanne in a building of nearly 1,000 square metres, URDLA has been committed, since its founding in 1978, to preserving and showcasing artisanal expertise. Around 500 artists from all over the world have created more than 3,000 works at URDLA. At the end of each residency, the public is invited to discover the prints fresh from the press and to meet the artist.

As an art centre dedicated to printmaking, URDLA also organises three monographic or group exhibitions each year, bringing together artists’ productions with printed works produced by the institution itself, as well as three commercial events in its Para=èle shop. By enabling artists from many different horizons to realise their projects, URDLA perpetuates the traditional processes of printmaking: lithography and engraving. At a time when images are produced and circulated instantaneously, URDLA plays an essential role in preserving these skills, whose impact is international.

This commitment is central to URDLA’s mission and makes it a true place of transmission.

This activity is first developed through artistic and cultural education programmes based on an active pedagogy. In concrete terms, it begins with collaboration with an artist, allowing participants to discover an artistic practice and inviting them to think through seeing. It then continues in the workshops, where it is rooted in the artisanal skills of printmaking and in experimentation — in other words, a way of thinking with one’s hands. Recognised as a Qualiopi-certified training organisation, URDLA also welcomes many professionals wishing to train in printmaking techniques.