Stepping into the exhibition Hauser & Wirth Invite(s): Jean-Charles de Quillacq at Hauser & Wirth Paris feels a bit like entering a space where the body quietly becomes the main character. Presented until May 9, 2026, this show is part of the gallery’s ongoing “Invite(s)” initiative, a project designed to open its doors to other artists, galleries, and writers, and to create meaningful connections within the contemporary art scene in Paris.
Photo by Valentin Merz
There is something particularly generous about this format. Rather than a traditional solo show, it’s built as a collaborative platform, here realized with the gallery Marcelle Alix and shaped through dialogue with curator Olivier Renaud-Clément. The idea is simple but powerful: to give visibility to practices that deserve wider attention, while inviting different voices into the same space.
At the heart of it all is Jean-Charles de Quillacq, whose work has long explored the body, not as something stable or clearly defined, but as something porous, shifting, and influenced by social and emotional forces. His sculptures and works on paper seem to hover between intimacy and unease, often using materials that feel both fragile and strangely physical. In his universe, bodies are never fully contained; they leak, transform, and exist in tension with the systems that shape them.
Jean-Charles de Quillacq, I try my tongue, 2023 © Aurélien Mole
What makes the exhibition especially engaging is how it treats the display itself almost like a performance. For Quillacq, exhibitions are not just places to show finished objects; they are situations where meaning can shift, where authority can be shared or questioned, and where the viewer becomes part of the experience. That subtle instability gives the show a quiet intensity, as if something is always in the process of becoming.
Another key layer of the project is the collaboration with Arthur Dreyfus. Rather than a traditional catalogue essay, Dreyfus was invited to write a text specifically for the exhibition, adding a literary dimension that expands the experience beyond the visual. Known for his work across novels, essays, and film, Dreyfus brings a sensitivity to narrative and language that resonates with Quillacq’s exploration of bodies and identities. This dialogue between artist and writer enriches the exhibition, offering another way to approach the works through words that echo, reinterpret, or even complicate what we see.
Jean-Charles de Quillacq, Tortue génitale, 2023 © Aurélien Mole
There’s also something quietly poetic about the fact that both Quillacq and Dreyfus share roots in Lyon, as if this collaboration carries an underlying sense of familiarity and shared cultural ground. It adds a subtle layer of intimacy to the project, even within the polished setting of a major international gallery.
In the end, the exhibition doesn’t try to overwhelm. Instead, it invites you to slow down and pay attention, to materials, to forms, to sensations that are not always easy to name. It’s a show that lingers, not because it gives clear answers, but because it gently shifts the way you think about bodies, space, and the stories we attach to them.
More information HERE.
