Théo Mercier

Born 1984 in Paris

Lives and works between Paris and Marseille

Théo Mercier is a French sculptor and stage director. Claiming formal freedom, Théo Mercier sets out to deconstruct the mechanisms of history, objects and representations, in which he recreates harmonious contradictions. By turns explorer, collector and artist, his work is at the crossroads of anthropology, geopolitics, tourism and landscape. Resident at Villa Medici in 2013 and nominated for the Marcel-Duchamp prize in 2014, Théo Mercier has also won the Silver Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale for Dance with Steven Michel, as well as the Jury Prize for the French Pavilion at the Prague Quadrennial in 2023 with Céline Peychet. In 2022, he was awarded Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

He has had major solo exhibitions at the Villa Medici (Roma), the Conciergerie de Paris, the Fondation Luma Westbau (Zurich), the Collection Lambert (Avignon), the Museo El Eco (Mexico), the Habana Biennial (Cuba), the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Paris), the [mac] Musée d’art contemporain (Marseille), the Lieu Unique (Nantes) and the Tri Postal (Lille). His work has also been shown in numerous group shows, including at the Centre Pompidou (Paris, Shanghai), the Hamburger Banhof (Berlin), the Palacio Bellas Artes (Mexico) and Arts Jameel (Dubai). Shifting from the “white cube” to the “black box”, Mercier is also a stage director. His performances have been shown at Nanterre-Amandiers, the Festival d’Automne, the Ménagerie de verre and the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Festival d’Avignon, Theater Spektakel (Zurich), Vidy (Lausanne), La Bâtie (Geneva), Usine C (Montreal), The Invisible dog Art Center (New York), the Festival Actoral (Marseille), the Vooroit Art Center (Ghent) or the Short Theater (Rome), among others.