Exhibitions

There are works that jump out at you, that almost assault the viewer, when the colours burst out like grenades, and then there are those that are more discreet, that make less noise and into which one penetrates, discovering little by little a troubled and unknown world, at the risk of losing oneself in it, or at least of coming out of it with more worries than certainties. Christian Lhopital’s drawings belong to the latter group.

Extenuating Circumstances is an evocative title in a world where urban art is torn between the judicial convictions of some and the institutional recognition of others. Lek & Sowat are self-taught artists from the illegal practice of graffiti, but recognized and exhibited by official cultural institutions, and in particular by the Villa Medici, which welcomed them as boarders under the title of “urban artists” (new name) in 2016.
With this film, Cristobal Diaz reflects on the writing of a history of contemporary art and his plastic research. He chooses to start from an exhibition to end up with a film that offers several possible levels of reading, through an aesthetic thought and mastered as part of an in situ realization.

On a proposal from Christine Phal, founder of the Drawing Lab and DRAWING NOW Art Fair, the members of the artistic committee invited emerging artists from the young European scene to present drawing and animation videos.
This program of videos reveals the diversity and richness of contemporary drawing that never ceases to surprise. The drawing takes possession of the place by animating itself in different forms.

For her exhibition at the Drawing Lab, Gaëlle Chotard has created an in situ installation: the framework, begun in the studio, has been finalised in the space in order to experiment with the spontaneity offered by drawing and the understanding of space. The artist presents the drawing in volume and tension but this time placed in darkness, like a shadow theater as well as an unpublished selection of drawings and washes made between 2014 and 2018.

Free is an art installation designed by artist Valentin van der Meulen. This installation invites visitors to discover contemporary drawings inspired by photos of individuals as if taken on the spot, questioning the codes of the current image.
It encourages visitors to question the importance and influence of images in today’s society, whose daily lives are constantly invaded by the media and social networks.

With the large installation Cité-Fantôme, Pia Rondé and Fabien Saleil develop a space to be approached both physically and mentally, to be crossed as a narrative, by the visitor solicited choreographically, by the movements of his body and his experience. It is an integral part of the work by activating it by its walk and its detours, to the rhythm of its steps, forking to better locate in the meanders. Thus, he becomes the actor of a space made up of glass plates assembled in a pavement fragmented on the ground, but also of plates erected as openings or dead ends. Everything is shadow and light, transparency and penumbra sculpted with projected silhouettes.

(No names, but names) is the title of the main installation presented during Debora Bolsoni’s first monographic exhibition in France. This work consists of several drawings, which could however be equally well perceived as sculptures.

In the exhibition “Strings”, implicit in her project, Keita Mori has chosen to cross the theme of migration. A subject with the roots of humanity, essential to the history that founded us, to the point of striking our contemporary imagination by its dramatic topicality.