Jimmy Robert: Appui, tendu, renversé

Jimmy Robert: Appui, tendu, renversé
October 9, 2021–February 6, 2022

Appui, tendu, renversé by Jimmy Robert (born 1975 in Saint Claude, Guadeloupe) is the first exhibition of this size dedicated to the artist in France. In seven rooms, Jimmy Robert’s exhibition offers a broad overview of the artist’s career since 2001, assembling a large collection of photographs, videos, sculptures, texts and works on paper. Jimmy Robert has been placing the identity and representation of the black body at the centre of his approach, more broadly exploring questions having to do with the desire, perspective and vulnerability of bodies, sometimes their absence.

It is often the body and voice of the artist himself that are presented, in installations mixing writing, poetry, dance, movement and images. Behind the masking, covering and disappearance games the artist plays, it is a veritable erotic of materials and surfaces that shows up everywhere. Fabric, leather, wood, the quality of papers used are all skins and tactile surfaces that summon the sense of touch and grab visual attention.

The exhibition Appui, tendu, renversé is the product of a partnership between three institutions: Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham, Museion in Bolzano and the Crac Occitanie in Sète.

The first stage of the project was presented at Nottingham Contemporary from September 26, 2020 to April 18, 2021 (curated by Nicole Yip), and the second stage was shown at Museion in Bolzano from May 28 to August 29, 2021 (curated by Bart van der Heide and Frida Carazzato).