Born on September 1, 1969 in Vannes, Agnès Giard is a former hypokhâgne-khâgne student at the Lycée Fénelon in Paris. She went on to study journalism and anthropology. Interested in Japanese culture, she made her debut in the first dedicated fanzines, then became a regular contributor to the Japanese magazine SM & Sniper. While making her first trip to the country in 1997, she published an art book, Fetish Mode, in 2003, before embarking on a series of research studies published in partnership with contemporary artists such as Tadanori Yokoo and Makoto Aida.

Parallel to her journalistic career, Agnès Giard pursued her academic research, defending her doctoral thesis in anthropology in 2015 on the effect of presence in Japanese anthropomorphic objects. She is now an associate researcher at the Sophiapol laboratory (Université Paris-Nanterre). A prolific writer, she has published several acclaimed essays such as L'Imaginaire érotique au Japon (2006), which offers a novel grid for analyzing Japanese society through its relationship to the body, sex and the sacred, and Un désir d'humain, les love dolls au Japon (2016), which won her the Prix Sade.

An analysis of social needs

Agnès Giard's work lies at the intersection of anthropology, sociology and cultural studies. It focuses on unconventional forms of affective and sexual relations, particularly in Japan, where the imaginary, technology and the social constantly recompose the relationship to desire and love. Her research focuses on what she calls "affective simulacra", be they dolls, digital avatars, love dolls, but also virtual partners or other symbolic rituals.

In her work, she analyzes how these devices are not mere gadgets, but complex mediations that respond to social needs (loneliness, aging, recomposition of conjugal norms). Her approach combines ethnography, cultural analysis and a critical eye, showing how Japan functions as a laboratory for sentimental innovations that question our own societies. From then on, her work reads like a critical cartography of modern desires, where humans dialogue with their artificial doubles to recompose the experience of love.

Support from the Mira program

In 2024, Agnès Giard was awarded support from the Mira program for international artistic research mobility. This program supports artists in their international research initiatives. It is open to French or foreign artists residing in France for more than five years, in solo or duo, to carry out or deepen research in one or more countries for a minimum period of one month.

Following her mobility in Japan in 2024, Agnès Giard published on October 2 the book Les Amours artificiels au Japon. Flirts virtuels et fiancées imaginaires, an essay that examines non-traditional or fictional forms of love such as avatars and virtual partners. After eight years of investigation, she continues her observation of a time when feelings are taking on a modern form within a Japanese generation that rejects traditional roles and sees virtual love as an act of resistance.

Key dates

• 2006: Agnès Giard publishes an analysis of Japanese society, L'Imaginaire érotique au Japon.
• 2015: She defends her doctoral thesis in anthropology.
• <2024: She is a laureate of the Mira program, offered by the French Institute, for which she undertakes a residency in Japan.

• 2025: Agnès Giard publishes Les Amours artificiels au Japon. Virtual flirts and imaginary fiancées.

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