As we learn to speak, words naturally get tied to generic pictures. If I say the word “forest”, your brain produces a generic image of a forest.

When I moved to Costa Rica in 1998, my stock of images was entirely based on twenty-five years of living in France. They did not fit my new environment.

It’s when what you see collides with the generic picture you have that it grabs your attention and provokes a feeling. You take a picture of a sunset because it is more beautiful than the generic image you have of a sunset. The “collision” is what fuels my work.

Nothing fascinates me more than watching how people cross paths, and observing their daily lives and routines around me. Daily life sparks in me the urge to capture the ordinary: a building under construction, people caught in traffic, workers going about their day. 

Perhaps because I come from elsewhere, I am attentive to what habit hides from those who were born here. My work is an invitation to share the common realm of time and space in which all our lives unfold.

CV

Laetitia Stagno

Born in 1973, Paris - France

Lives and works in San José - Costa Rica

Exhibitions

2026 

— Feria Viva el Arte - Plaza Mayor, Costa Rica

— 70.º anniversaire de l’Association des Peintres de Chatou (group exhibition ) - Espace Hal Singer, Chatou, France 

— Feria Viva el Arte - Plaza del Sol, Costa Rica

2025 

— Art Fest Curridabat Aleste, Galería Matiz, Curridabat, Costa Rica. 

2023 

— 30 ème Edition du Salon des Arts, (group exhibition) Chambourcy, Francia.

— Group exhibition Résidence Senior Ovelia, Chatou, Francia.

Professional contribution 

2025 — Mural (8 x 2,50 m) - San José Lab - Rohrmoser Verde, Costa Rica. 

Affiliation

2023 — Association des Peintres de Chatou (Francia)