Théo Mercier is as much a sculptor as he is a director. By turns explorer, collector, curator and artist, his work lies at the crossroads of anthropology, geopolitics, tourism and landscape.

In this interview, he talks about his career and his latest show, Skinless, currently on show at the Théâtre de la Villette as part of the Festival d'Automne à Paris. Built on a landscape of detritus, Skinless is a disenchanted Eden. In this panorama of the end of the world, an unusual couple love each other and tear each other apart under the watchful eye of a tragic observer. Skinless depicts a three-headed couple living in the ruins of capitalism.

A discussion with Emmanuelle Huynh, artist and head of the Beaux-Arts de Paris studio, and Audrey Illouz, head of cultural programming.

Théo Mercier is represented by galerie mor charpentier (Paris, Bogota) and is an associate artist at the Théâtre National de Bretagne (Rennes).

Claiming formal freedom, he sets out to deconstruct the mechanisms of history, objects and representations, in which he finds harmonious contradictions. A Villa Médicis resident in 2013 and nominated for the Prix Marcel-Duchamp in 2014, Théo Mercier has also won the Silver Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale for Dance with Steven Michel, the Art of Change 21 Prize and the Jury Prize for the French Pavilion at the Prague Quadrennial in 2023 with Céline Peychet. He has had major solo exhibitions at the Villa Medici (Rome), the Conciergerie de Paris, the Fondation Luma Westbau (Zurich), the Collection Lambert (Avignon), the Museo El Eco (Mexico), the Biennale de Cuba (Havana), the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Paris), the Musée d'art contemporain (Marseille), the Lieu Unique (Nantes) and the Tri Postal (Lille). His work has also been shown in numerous group exhibitions, including at the Centre Pompidou (Paris, Shanghai), the Hamburger Banhof (Berlin), the Palacio Bellas Artes (Mexico City) and Arts Jameel (Dubai).

Moving from the ‘white cube’ to the ‘black box’, Théo Mercier is also a stage director. His performances have been shown at Nanterre-Amandiers, the Festival d'Automne, La Villette, the Ménagerie de verre and the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Festival d'Avignon, Theater Spektakel (Zurich), Vidy (Lausanne), La Bâtie (Geneva), Usine C (Montreal), The Invisible Dog Art Center (New York), the Festival Actoral (Marseille), the Vooroit Art Center (Ghent) and the Short Theater (Rome), among others.
 

Photo credit: © Marie Taillefer