The Inner Fire

Starting in the fall of 2026, the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe will present a solo exhibition by Nicolas Daubanes, a French artist whose work explores power structures, forms of resistance, and the traces left by history in architecture.

Through his large-scale murals and installations, Nicolas Daubanes explores the causes and consequences of violence, social injustice, oppression, and war. His work draws in particular on recent and contemporary French and German history, the Resistance during World War II, and the fate of prisoners and deportees.

The exhibition brings together works that explore how individuals attempt to resist systems of injustice and make their voices heard. These acts of rebellion, defiance, or survival are translated by the artist into visual form through architectural structures, materials steeped in history, and installations that highlight the tensions between confinement and liberation.

The title *Le feu intérieur* evokes both the tensions running through societies and the inner drive that animates those who engage in various forms of resistance: artists, scientists, politicians, and citizens. The exhibition thus highlights the courage of disobedience, strategies of sabotage, mutinies, and acts of subversion as acts of survival and liberation.

“The Inner Fire ” will be on view from September 26, 2026, to January 10, 2027, at the Orangerie of the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.