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.

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.