Exhibition Chantier
Since 2022, for a commission by the Fondation Cartier, Yann Kebbi has been making drawings of the construction site of its future premises on the Place du Palais Royal, designed by the architect Jean Nouvel.
The drawings in this series make the invisible aspects of a construction project visible – particularly the women and men at work, dissimulated behind machinery and scaffolding. They depict scenes of life, and perspectives on how people move and exist within exhibition space. “In translating the subjects – spaces, works, audiences – into my own visual language, with my techniques and micro-narratives, in my drawings, I am seeking balance between precision and movement, profusion and radicality,” he explains.
Yann Kebbi also provides his own clever, humorous take on the Fondation Cartier, incorporating his “worldview” using personal and familiar elements. Agnès Varda’s cat, for example, immortalized in the iconic sculpture in the Fondation Cartier’s garden, is replaced by his own; and works by the likes of photographer Malick Sidibé and artist James Lee Byars are drawn and reinterpreted by the artist in his own artistic language.
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and the RATP
The Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain is a private cultural institution founded in 1984 by Maison Cartier, with the mission of promoting all fields of contemporary artistic creation to international audiences, through a program of exhibitions, performing arts and conferences. A pioneer in the realm of patronage, the Fondation Cartier strives to broaden the accessibility of contemporary art for a range of audiences, exploring its manifold forms with complete independence. It offers artists from around the world a framework for inspiration and expression and a space for experimentation, as well as international visibility.
At the end of 2025, the institution will celebrate the opening of its new site in the building that once housed the Louvre des Antiquaires, located on the Place du Palais-Royal.
Paris’s public transport system (RATP) provides a unique setting for users to encounter art. Through its many heritage- and culture-related activities, the RATP seeks to continually enhance the transport experience of its users, offering them opportunities for surprises and discoveries. The RATP’s cultural policy encompasses a wide range of art forms and expressions, with the aim of making art and culture accessible to all.
The RATP and Fondation Cartier are partnering to propose a series of artistic projects in the Galerie Valois.
The galerie Valois
The Galerie Valois is a former shopping gallery, which today connects the Palais-Royal - Musée du Louvre metro station on Lines 1 and 7 with the former Grands Magasins du Louvre department store in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The gallery opened in 1919, housing window displays and stalls of goods intended to draw passers-by into the department store. The gallery’s Art Nouveau style, recognizable by its floral motifs, has made it into a landmark passage within the Parisian urban fabric. The RATP and the Fondation Cartier wanted to undertake a partnership in this heritage space, which leads to the future entrance of the latter’s new site.
Starting in October 2024, the Fondation Cartier and the RATP are thus unveiling a new project by the artist Yann Kebbi titled “Chantier”, in which he creates a dialogue between his work and the alcoves of the Galerie Valois.
The artist Yann Kebbi
Born in Paris in 1987, Yann Kebbi is a graduate of the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris. For the past fifteen years, he has collaborated with an array of media outlets, and in parallel, has developed a personal body of work combining drawing, printmaking, collage and photography.
He is the author of ten or so publications, and his work has been shown in a number of exhibitions, particularly at the Galerie Martel, which represents him. Since 2021, Yann Kebbi has collaborated with the Fondation Cartier, which has several drawings by the artist in its collection.