Benoît Maire

Benoît Maire

2021-2022

Born in Pessac (France) in 1978, Benoît Maire is a visual artist.

After studying philosophy, Benoît Maire obtained his National Higher Diploma in Visual Expression (DNSEP) at Villa Arson in Nice before carrying out a research residency at the Pavillon du Palais de Tokyo. Using philosophy, historical texts and artistic references as departure points, Benoît Maire has developed a polymorphous practice that is also deployed in the form of lectures, publications and exhibition curatorships. He nurtures his thoughts on theory and its practical expression through objects and texts by collaborating regularly with such artists as Étienne Chambaud, Alex Cecchetti and Falke Pisano.

The research project he is working on at Villa Medici is entitled “La main en peinture et le papier imprimé” (The Hand in Painting and Printed Paper). It consists of producing a series of works in different mediums (photographs, paintings, texts and sculptures) which together will form an investigation of the transition from the iconic hand of Italian primitivism to the fleshly hand of the Renaissance. His hypothesis suggests that the appearance of the printing press in the late 15^th century helped reformulate paintings of hands, which lost their power of conceptual (deictic) designation and acquired a more realistic affective weight. Benoît Maire’s work resides in the tension that arises when the hand seeks to find itself between two sensitive systems.

As part of the TextWork project of the Pernod Ricard Foundation and the Académie de France à Rome – Villa Médicis, Benoît Maire met with the author Caterina Riva for a commissioned text project aimed at exploring the work of a contemporary artist in residence in Rome. This collaboration resulted in the publication of a monographic text and a meeting open to the public with the artist and the author.

The Lampe Médicis

During his year of residence as a resident of Villa Medici in 2021-2022, the artist Benoît Maire has designed a series of metal furniture elements inspired by the Villa Medici, renewing the purified language of the existing furniture created by Balthus in the 1960s and by Richard Peduzzi in the early 2000s.

Benoît Maire’s “Lampe Médicis” was made from a scale reduction of the main building of the Villa Medici, also recognizable by the carved lion characteristic of the Loggia located under the façade of the building.

At the end of his year of residence, the artist donated the lamp to the Villa Medici: it is now on display in the Chambre des oiseaux, Ferdinand de Medici’s former private study in the gardens, which can be visited throughout the year as part of the Villa Medici guided tours.

The open and airy structure of the lamp echoes the pergola painted on the vault of the room which, in a play between inside and outside, reveals animals and plants once collected by Cardinal Ferdinand de Medici.

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