Nicole Gravier

In the Myths & Clichés series, she appropriates its codes — dramatic poses, narrative sequences, stereotyped pictures — the better to deconstruct them. Photo booth pictures, postcards, found images: everything becomes material with which to dismantle clichés, undo facile narratives, and lay bare the mechanisms that shape our gaze.

Her work falls within the “semiotic” trend in art. Like Roland Barthes in A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments (1976), Nicole Gravier questions the way in which signs produce meaning, create myths, and lend themselves to misdirection. By cutting out, recomposing, and replaying images, she dissects visual narratives, undermines the text, and humorously reveals the procedures involved in constructing the fiction of femininity. Her approach reveals the mechanisms of symbolic domination and invites everyone to ask themselves what they think they are seeing. Her work finds a particular echo in the Italian feminist revolution of the 1970s, which questioned the power of language and of the image.

Presented at Villa Medici in parallel with the exhibition Agnès Varda, Here and There: Paris – Rome, Nicole Gravier’s work engages in dialogue with that of Agnès Varda; both reveal the hidden narratives of everyday life and the ability of women to reappropriate their own images.

Practical information

Dates
From 25 February to 4 May 2026

Opening Hours
From 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, last admission at 6.30 p.m.
Closed on Tuesdays

Admission
€14 full price
€11 reduced price*
Free admission under certain conditions*

The works of Nicole Gravier are accessible only as part of the guided tour of the Villa Medici (duration: 1 hour 30 minutes). You can find the visiting hours on this page.