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Crossings, Noé Soulier et le Junior Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris, Villa Hegra, Al-‘Ula

14 January 2025

Crossings: A Choreography by Noé Soulier with the Participation of the Junior Ballet of the Opéra de Paris, presented by Villa Hegra.

 

Curators: Wejdan Reda and Arnaud Morand

 

“CROSSINGS”, AN IN-SITU DIALOGUE BETWEEN BODY AND LANDSCAPE

 

On December 13 and 14, 2024, the Junior Ballet of the Opéra de Paris, composed of 18 young dancers aged 18 to 22, performed for the first time in two shows in the heart of AlUla, within the canyons of this exceptional region. Noé Soulier’s creation Crossings, lasting 45 minutes, was specially designed to integrate harmoniously with the environment, with dancers moving directly on the sand and without any sound accompaniment.

The curators of the first phase of Villa Hegra’s program, Wejdan Reda and Arnaud Morand, state: “In the majestic and demanding desert of AlUla, Noé Soulier breathes a unique sense of scale into this new work: the dancers sometimes appear minuscule in the face of the vastness of the canyons and rock formations. Their bodies harmonize with the setting, becoming an extension of the landscape itself.”

Indeed, Crossings is a nomadic work that explores the relationship between the movement of bodies and the spaces they inhabit. It draws inspiration from the uniqueness of the place, marked by the millennia-old history of AlUla as a crossroads of civilizations.

NEUMA – The Forgotten Ceremony, Sarah Brahim & Ugo Schiavi, Villa Hegra, Al-‘Ula

14 January 2025

NEUMA, The Forgotten Ceremony

 

An installation by artists Sarah Brahim and Ugo Schiavi, presented by Villa Hegra.

 

 

Curators: Wejdan Reda and Arnaud Morand

 
 

The American-Saudi artist Sarah Brahim and the French artist Ugo Schiavi present their collaborative work titled NEUMA, The Forgotten Ceremony. This installation marks the culmination of their participation in the Villa Hegra residency program. Designed as a symbolic gesture in homage to the ritual practices of the pre-Islamic tribes of AlUla, the work of Brahim and Schiavi is based on extensive research conducted in close collaboration with archaeologists and local communities in the region. Drawing inspiration from the landscape of AlUla, its local heritage, and its mythologies, this exhibition invites contemplation—an understated gesture that blends the ancient heritage of the site with contemporary creation, the profane and the sacred, through a collection of sculptures, videos, and photographic works.

 

Six stations on the Grand Paris Express metro inaugurated

9 January 2025

The first six permanent works on the Grand Paris Express metro produced by the Eva Albarran agency were inaugurated in June 2024 to mark the opening of the southern extension of line 14, between Maison Blanche and Aéroport d’Orly. Designed by the artists in tandem with the station architects, they are closely linked to the station architecture and mark the first stage in a major network-wide art collection.

 

Artists : Ned Kahn for Maison Blanche, Eva Jospin for Hôpital Bicêtre, Nonotak for L’Haÿ-les-Roses, Steiner & Lenzlinger for Chevilly-Larue, Lyès Hammadouche for Thiais – Orly, and Vhils for Aéroport d’Orly.

 

Client: Société des Grands Projets
Artistic director: José-Manuel Goncalves
Artistic coordination: Le Centquatre-Paris
Design and production: Agence Eva Albarran
Contractor: Manifesto

Disques évidés excentriques, Felice Varini, Christie’s Paris

6 January 2025

Paris – Always at the crossroads of art and innovation, Christie’s welcomes Felice Varini, a pioneering artist of geometry and colour, for an original installation. Created specifically for the Christie’s spaces on the occasion of the prestigious sales of 20th and 21st century art, this monumental work, entitled Eccentric Hollow Discs, will be unveiled from today.

 

Designed to interact fully with the architecture of the building, this new spatial painting unfolds over several floors inside the building. Composed of two intertwined spirals of yellow and red, the work seems to dissolve and recompose itself simultaneously before the viewer’s gaze. These eccentric hollowed-out discs create a fascinating dialogue between full and empty, the materiality of the work and the surrounding space, finite and infinite.

As a virtuoso of space, Felice Varini overturns the traditional perception of form and volume. From a precise point of view, his geometric lines connect to form a coherent two-dimensional image. But as the visitor moves around, the work transforms, offering a multitude of possible points of view and interpretations. The resulting heightened awareness of space invites visitors to explore the relationship between themselves, the work and their environment.

 

As well as the artwork in the building, Felice Varini has also taken over the elegant façade of Christie’s House. Bold graphic motifs are displayed on the building’s windows, as a visual invitation to step through the doors and discover the artist’s world inside.

Chaque vie est une histoire, Palais de la Porte Dorée

6 January 2025

Carte blanche to 13 artists on the Palais
Like a human being with a singular destiny, the Palais de la Porte Dorée has had a multitude of lives over the course of almost a century. Those who have visited it have tasted its fruits, sometimes tasty, sometimes bitter. The winds of history have changed names and intentions, but generation after generation, artists and their work have been called upon to symbolise the successive identities of this institution, which has often been transformed in line with changes in consciousness.

 

This is how Jean de Loisy, invited for a carte blanche exhibition, described the Palais de la Porte Dorée. In response to this invitation, he teamed up with curator Raphaël Giannesini to invite 13 international artists from a wide range of backgrounds and generations to take over the Palais’ historic spaces and explore its spirit through in situ creations.

 

The guest artists will take over this very special place and, together with the people who are most affected by it – those who work there or simply visit it – they will invent works for this singular monument that activate its meaning and memory. Most of the sculptures, drawings, films and installations produced for this exhibition were conceived with the participation of users of the Palais-Musée-Aquarium.

 

The resulting series of commissions is an original contemporary art trail, punctuated by works that are often monumental and imbued with spirituality.

 

Artists
Charlie Aubry, Katinka Bock, Seham Boutata, Claude Closky, Teresa Fernandez-Pello, Juliette Green, Mathieu Abonnenc, Aung-Ko, Amalia Laurent, Nge Lay, Kokou Ferdinand Makouvia, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Vivien Zhang.

 

With the collaboration of users, staff and visitors to the Palais de la Porte Dorée.

 

Commissariat

Jean de Loisy
Raphaël Giannésini
Christine Piquéras
Cécile Vermorel

Mondes Nouveaux

7 March 2024

Since 2022, as a part of recovery plan France Relance and under the leadership of the Ministry of Culture, the “Mondes Nouveaux” calls for interests inquired 430 artists from every artistic field to reconsider our common perceptions, and the way we’re inhabiting the world.

 

In cooperation with the Conservatoire du Littoral – Coastal Conservatory, and the Centre des Monuments Nationaux – National Center for Historic Monuments these projects are now displayed on the whole territory, in metropolitan and overseas France.

 

Eva Albarran agency has accompanied thirty projects, mostly intended for public and natural spaces, from their conception to their realization.

Villa Hegra, Al-Ula

7 March 2024

Villa Hegra is a Franco-Saudi institution focusing on artistic and cultural programmes in Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia. The institution will be housed in a building designed by French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, which due to open in 2026, to accommodate artist residencies and a cultural centre.
 

To begin building the identity of the future institution and to position it on the international artistic and cultural scene, Saudi, French and international creative talents have been selected and invited by curators and artistic directors.
 
Since June 2023, we have been working with the teams at Villa Hegra and the Royal Commission for Al-Ula to promote this artistic institution by putting in place a pre-opening programme that includes :
– invitations to artists, commissioned works and performances
– lectures, podcasts
– film-concerts
– as well as educational and scientific workshops for children
 
To achieve this, Eva Albarran’s agency is working closely with and coordinating a number of partners, including the Beaux-Arts Institute, Hopscotch, le Forum des Images, Les Petits Débrouillards, Craft, ICC and many others!