5 free Art exhibitions to see in France in November 2024

An immersion in adolescence in Montreuil, a focus on female photography in a Parisian Art space, a portrait of Tania Mouraud in a gallery in Clermont-Ferrand, the youth of Robert Combas in the village hall of a town hall…

Like every month, the free exhibitions offer us delicious escapes into the art of yesterday and today; throughout France, and without reservation. So, shall we go out?

At the House of Latin America, 17 textile artists

Did you like discovering the Colombian Olga de Amaral at the Cartier Foundation? Not far from there, on Boulevard Saint-Germain, the Latin America House offers a zoom out with its exposure “A Brief History of Sons”meeting of around twentyLatin American artists working with textile materials, whose works date from the 1960s to the present day (with Olga de Amaral, but also Martha Le Parc, Sandra Monterroso, Natalia Villanueva Linares, etc.). The selection surprises with its variety – ranging from small format to monumental and from sculpture to video – and seduces with the beauty of its selection. Favorite: the kinetic mobiles of the Venezuelan Elias Crespin (rare man among women!), thanks to dancing parentheses.

In Clermont-Ferrand, Tania Mouraud faces the world

Tania Mouraud (born in 1942) is a writing artist, particularly known for her monumental frescoes where tall black letters stretch to the point of illegibility. At 82 years old, she continues her explorations and presents the results to Clermont-Ferrandbetween the walls of the gallery Claire Gastaud. The “Pasik” series (2024) interweaves dancing lines, although not so cheerful, says critic Cécile Renoult in the exhibition text: “The poem, from a Yiddish source, blurs like a gaze clouded with tears. » The “Gaufrages” series (2023–2024) plays with voids and reliefs, leading the eye to focus on the volumes of Japanese paper that remains impeccably white. Older, the plasticized straw bales of “Borderland” (2007–2010) disturb the reflection of the fields that surround them, offering a fascinating zoom on the industrialization of agriculture. A rich setwhose apparent abstraction is associated with a reflection on today’s world.

In Paris, free figuration by the painter Robert Combas

He has followed him for many years, to the point of associating his name with his: crazy about free figurationthe collector Didier Moiselet has acquired, since his young years, numerous works by Robert Combas (born in 1957) – who is, with his acolyte Hervé Di Rosa, the co-founder of this movement. This fall, the man chose to lend part of it to the town hall of 5^e arrondissement from Paris. All were produced in the early 1980s, when the artist was still a young troublemaker without means. On the raised rails in the grandiose village hall, are presented free canvases, without framessheets, packaging boxes, covered with outraged characters, crazy animals and mistreated figures of popular culture. A tasty parade, full of sap, bursting with youth.

At Espace Art Absolument, feminine photography

Inaugurated in 2017, Espace Art Absolument recently opened a new chapter in its history by moving from rue Louise Weiss to 13^e district of Paris at rue Monsieur le Prince in 6^e. Son exhibition “They first! They again! » takes advantage of the opening of the month of photography – with the Paris Photo fair, the Photo Days festival… Turning to the most important current representatives of this medium, it exhibits the latest productions of internationally renowned artists such as the American Nan Goldinthe French Bettina Rheimsthe South African Zane Muholior even Franco-Malagasy Dear Andrialavidrazana (whose work is also visible at the Palais de Tokyo). A Nice selection.

In Montreuil, in the intimacy of adolescence

They passed through doors that no one, until now, had dared to cross. To portray adolescence today (a very complex subject), the author Jo Witek and the photographer Juliette Mas met 21 young French people… in their room, in other words in their most secret privacy. Together, they made a book – published by Editions de La Martinière Jeunesse. Its publication is accompanied by an exhibition at Tignous center of contemporary art in Montreuilof which the two women declare themselves to be both artists and curators. The immersion, the result of four years of work as a duo, offers a significant breakthrough in an age where young men and women are changing and building themselves. A delicate and interesting approach.