This Thursday, January 9, the ADIAF (Association for the international diffusion of French Art) unveiled the four artists nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize during a private reception at the Artcurial auction house. Created in 2000 and endowed with 90,000 euros, the prize rewarded Gaëlle Choisne in 2024, and this year focuses its attention on the work of Bianca Bondi (born in 1986 and represented by the mor charpentier gallery), Eva Nielsen (born in 1983, Peter Kilchmann and The Pill), Lionel Sabaté (born in 1975, Ceysson & Bénétière) and Xie Lei (b. 1983, Semiose).
Like every year, these will be exhibited together during the fall, September 26, 2025 to February 22, 2026. But, this time and until 2029, the exhibition will not take place at the Center Pompidou, closed for renovations, but at the Paris Museum of Modern Artwhich will therefore host the next four editions of the prize. A small revolution that goes hand in hand with another: usually announced on the Monday of the big art week, the name of the winner will have to wait Thursday October 23 for his revelation.
Artists who love organic materials
Bianca Bondi, The Antechambre (Thai Crane)2021
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Exhibition view, 2nd Biennale of Thailand, Korat • dimensions variable • Photo Supernormal Studio
But then who are this year’s four nominees? The youngest, Bianca Bondiis one of the most prominent visual artists of the moment: currently a resident of the Villa Medici in Rome, the young woman of South African and Italian origin mainly creates installations on sitefrom found objects but also organic matter, such as salt or waterand is closely interested in occult practices that she questions, summons and activates.
Lionel Sabaté, Exhibition view, “Clandestine pollens” at the Château de Chambord2023
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Courtesy Ceysson & Bénétière, Paris / © Leonard de Serres
The eldest of the selection, Lionel Sabatéalso uses atypical materials, such as ashof the dustof the dead skinnails, tree stumps…
All this to create a bestiary composed of birds, wolves or bears, in the form of sculptures orpictorial works. Deliberately thin and emaciated, these bodies are inhabited by a certain strangeness which disturbs and captivates at the same time.
Attention to landscapes
Xie Lei, Protection I2024
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Oil on canvas • 90 × 65 cm • Photo Pauline Assathiany / Courtesy Semiose, Paris
Regarding Xie Leigood news: his paintings will be visible this Saturday in Paris, on the walls of the Semiose gallery, which exhibits them from January 11 to March 15. Each of the paintings gathered here represents one or more evanescent silhouettesilluminated with a mysterious halo. Captured in a natural landscape, they all appear “fighting, making love, dying or being saved” as the artist explains. Born in China and Parisian by adoption since 2006, Xie Lei is graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts of China and Fine Arts of Paris.
Franco-Danish visual artist, Eva Nielsen walks, as for her, on a wire between painting and photographyworking with screen printing techniques (such as insolation) as well as with acrylic, oil or ink.
Eva Nielsen, Zoled II2022
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Oil, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas • 375 × 275 cm • Courtesy Eva Nielsen and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich-Paris
Winner of the BMW Art Makers program in 2023, the artist exhibited in this context at Arles meetings : within the Saint-Trophime cloister, the large compositions of his “Insolare” series revealed work of great finesse around the landscapes of the Camargue, made of superpositions of screen-printed images.
From painting to installation, from sculpture to visual photography, the four artists nominated for the 25e edition of the Marcel Duchamp Prize are united by a common point: interest in nature, living things, landscapes. A delicate selection that reflects a certain spirit of the times.
