Three exhibitions at Villa Arson in Nice

Villa Arson in Nice continues to innovate with three new exhibitions embracing various realms of creation: drawing and comics, architecture and design, painting, including graffiti and outsider art, video.

The Carrée Gallery will be dedicated to a prominent female figure engaged in comics, with a retrospective honoring Chantal Montellier.

The other two exhibitions of this season are entrusted to two collectives of young Italian artists focusing on Villa Arson itself, its extraordinary building by Michel Marot, and its history.

Architects and designers of Parasite 2.0 have created structures contrasting with the unique architecture of Villa Arson in the outdoor spaces, gardens, and part of the labyrinthine areas, while in the Passage des Fougères, the eccentric trio Canemorto imagines a fiction around the figure of Pierre-Joseph Arson, the historical owner of the Villa.

The exhibitions are open until August 25, 2024.

Chantal Montellier, Wonder City, Les Humanoïdes associés, Paris, 1983

Who’s Afraid of Chantal Montellier? 03/01/24 – 08/25/24 Curators: Vanina Géré, Rosa Brux, Frédéric Wecker Too smart, too beautiful, too strong, too red? The mix of charm and fear that Chantal Montellier has often aroused has often relegated her art to the sidelines in the history of critical reception when it should have been in the spotlight. This exhibition focuses on the most prolific period of Montellier’s career to place her work in the history of comics as one of the most politically relevant of its time.

Parasite 2.0, Presence; credits: Elena Tredici

Parasite 2.0 – gently brut Curator: Vittorio Parisi Parasite 2.0 is a collective of architects and designers based in Milan. Founded in 2010 by Stefano Colombo, Eugenio Cosentino, and Luca Marullo, the collective studies the state of human habitats, operating in a hybrid framework of architecture, visual arts, and scenography. Displayed on the terraces and in the gardens of Villa Arson, the Parasite 2.0 exhibition questions the relationship between art and architecture based on the work of Michel Marot. The collective creates volumetric pieces that aesthetically and symbolically interact with the architectural volumes of Villa Arson.

Canemorto, Simun Haze; credits Canemorto

Canemorto – the search for the absolute work Active since 2007, Canemorto is a trio of Italian artists devoted to the worship of the goddess in the form of a dog, Txakurra. Close to graffiti and linked to outsider art, the trio’s imagery is characterized by spontaneous and brutal painting. In the very ironic and esoteric spirit of their creations, the trio proposes an exhibition based on the legends surrounding the figure of Pierre-Joseph Arson. Through the production of a pictorial cycle and a short film, the artists invest the Passage des Fougères and retrace, at the crossroads of history and fiction, the stages of the life of the merchant and banker after whom the Villa is named and who freely inspired Balzac in his novel: the search for the absolute. Villa Arson is located at 20 Avenue Stephen Liegeard in Nice.