Navid Nuur
‘The Tentext Theory’
Parliament, Paris 10th arrondissement
Until March 4, 2023
As part of Parliament’s ‘Interlude’ series, which promotes experimental exhibition formats, Navid Nuur proposes a curious project seeking to make a clean break with the concept of art and its value. The minimalist installation ‘The Tentext Theory’, whose title is inspired by a portmanteau blending the words content and context, is composed of dried fruit hanging from wires suspended from the ceiling of the gallery. The artist ironically invites the public to consume the fruit to experience the cultural energy sparked ‘when one content and one context meet.’
Serigne Ibrahima Dieye
‘Jungle Noire’
Cécile Fakhoury, Paris 8th arrondissement
Until February 25, 2023
In ‘Jungle Noire’ at Cécile Fakhoury in Paris, Senegalese artist Serigne Ibrahima Dieye continues the project he started in ‘Métamorphoses ondulatoires’, presented at the gallery’s Dakar space in 2022, exploring the intrinsic brutality of our contemporary societies. Through anthropomorphic animals and ghosts, Dieye depicts the absurdity of normalized and aestheticized violence. Dieye’s dark and fanciful paintings resonate with ‘Diffraction humaine’, his other solo show, on view until April 23 at Suquet des Art(iste)s, Cannes.
Vincent Fecteau
Galerie Crèvecœur, Paris 7th arrondissement
Until March 4, 2023
Vincent Fecteau’s artworks can be both seductive and frustrating. His sculptures, for which he became renowned, mischievously break free of any formal categorization, like 3D puzzles. Halfway between the big and the small, figuration and abstraction, architectural model and live organism, they celebrate the transitory nature of images and objects. His show at Crèvecœur gallery demonstrates his mastery of ambiguity through a single work – Untitled (2018) – combined with photographs by film director Alain Guiraudie.
Niki de Saint Phalle
‘The 1980s and 1990s: Art Running Free’
Les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie, Toulouse
Until March 5, 2023
The solo show at Musée Frac Occitanie is dedicated to the last two decades of the life and work of Niki de Saint Phalle. Different projects by the French-American artist unfold in the rooms of Toulouse’s former slaughterhouse, Les Abattoirs. Models and sketches of the monumental Tarot Garden, an illustrated diary, drawing series to raise AIDS awareness, and works condemning racism and the destruction of nature, confirm the power and lucidity of a woman ahead of her time. Furniture, clothing, monumental sculpture, books, fountains: creative exploration was without limits for Saint Phalle, who wanted to encourage women to create extraordinary things.
Group show
‘Constellation’
MAGNIN-A, Paris 11th arrondissement
Until March 18, 2023
The group show presents the work of African-born artists. MAGNIN-A has been highlighting these artists for decades, long before the recent discovery of their richness by a wider audience. In ‘Constellation’, you’ll find historical gems, such as photographs by Malick Sidibé documenting the Bamako night life of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as recent works like Amadou Sanogo’s singular and intimist paintings. The title of the exhibition reflects its ambition: this sparkling network illustrates a multiplicity of approaches and debunks the often too simplistic readings of African arts.
Group show
‘Au-delà: Rituals for a new world’
Lafayette Anticipations, Paris 4th arrondissement
February 15 to May 16, 2023
Conceived by performer and curator Agnes Gryczkowska, the group exhibition presents the work of around 20 artists who question the meaning of archaic, contemporary, individual, and collective rituals in our society. In the labyrinthine spaces of Lafayette Anticipations, the large installation Beltane Oracle by Bianca Bondi enters into a dialog with films by the legendary artist Ana Mendieta, while new sculptures and paintings by Tobias Spichtig refer to the ‘Dances of Death’. Through a corpus of heteroclite works – from the handwritten pages of the medieval mystic and visionary Hildegard of Bingen to the last sculpture produced by Eva Hesse – the curator transforms the space of Lafayette Anticipations into a dense initiatory journey that questions the imagination and knowledge of the audience.
Paris+ par Art Basel editorial team (Patrick Steffen, Karim Crippa, Juliette Amoros)
Caption for full-bleed image: Installation view of Niki de Saint Phalle’s exhibition ‘The 1980s and 1990s: Art Running Free’ at Les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie, Toulouse, 2023. Photograph by Boris Conte. Courtesy of Niki Charitable Art Foundation and ADAGP Paris.