BENOÎT MAIRE, CAMILLE VIVIER
CURATED BY JULIEN CARREYN
OPENING: SEPTEMBER 9th, 2026 • 6 PM - 9 PM
SEPTEMBER 9th, 2026 - OCTOBER 14th, 2026
GALERIE JOHAN FLEURY DE WITTE, PARIS, FRANCE
The exhibition brings together the work of Benoît Maire and Camille Vivier through a series of profound affinities in the way they look at reality: their relationship with objects, the centrality of the body, their engagement with mythology and art history, and their ability to transform concrete elements into enigmatic and symbolic presences.
For both artists, an object is never simply an object. It is removed from its original function and context and placed within a new network of relationships. In Maire’s work, a piece of furniture, a fossil, an archaeological fragment, an ancient head, a computer or a USB drive can coexist within the same composition. Their juxtaposition creates a clash between different periods, materials and meanings: the everyday object becomes a relic, the relic becomes a figure, the figure becomes a symbol. Objects thus acquire a kind of narrative autonomy and seem to participate in a secret order.
A similar process runs through Vivier’s photographs. In her images too, objects are detached from their ordinary use and charged with a ritual or symbolic dimension. Candles, statues, architecture, natural elements and bodies enter into dialogue, creating images that seem to belong simultaneously to the present and to an archaic time. In both practices, what matters is not so much the identity of the object itself, but what can happen when it is placed in relation to something else.
The body constitutes a second point of encounter. Vivier photographs the body as if it were a sculpture: monumental, statuary, almost archaeological. Her models can appear as contemporary mythological figures, suspended between the real body and its ideal representation. In Maire’s work, in a sense, the reverse movement takes place: objects and materials become bodies, incorporating a mental and almost anthropomorphic dimension. Sculpture thus becomes a space of passage between the physical and the realm of thought.
Mythology also plays a similar role in both practices. It is not used simply as a repertoire of images from the past, but as a tool for questioning the present. Classical figures, philosophical references, archaic forms and contemporary objects are brought together, creating a suspended temporality. The ancient does not appear as something concluded, but as a material that remains available for constructing new images and new meanings.
It is precisely this overlapping of times, bodies and objects that creates the common ground between Maire and Vivier. Both construct worlds in which reality seems slightly displaced from itself: an object becomes a symbol, a body becomes a sculpture, a fragment of the past enters into relation with technology, and an everyday image takes on the form of a myth.
Their encounter therefore does not arise from a formal resemblance, but from a shared attitude: that of creating unexpected associations and allowing objects and images themselves to generate meaning. Photography and sculpture thus become two different ways of interrogating the same material — the body, memory, history and objects — and of transforming it into a possible contemporary mythology.
Based on a text by Julien Carreyn
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