Théo Mercier

Théo Mercier was born in Paris in 1984. He lives and works in Paris.

He studied in Paris at the National School of Industrial Design (ENSCI) and in Berlin at the Universität der Künste (UDK). Alongside Bernhard Willhelm, he worked on the Björk stage costume collection before moving to New York in 2008 to assist artist Matthew Barney on his opera project River of Fundament.

Sculptor and director, Théo Mercier works on the relationship between the work and its environment. In his installations, he mixes his own sculptures with objects or artefacts he has collected during his travels, and seeks to create a real choreography of the eye for the viewer. The diversity of the collections thus gathered is a reflection of that of globalization, their arrangement evoking a certain archeology of the future where strangeness, poetry and humor are born from unusual connections.

His work has been the subject of several personal exhibitions, notably at the 13th Havana Biennale, Cuba; at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris (2019), at the Museo El Eco, Mexico (2017), at the Musée de l'Homme, Paris (2017), at the Musée d'art Contemporain, Marseille (2016), at the Lieu Unique, Nantes (2013), at Tri Postal, Lille (2012).

He has participated in numerous group exhibitions in international institutions such as the Jameel Art Center, Dubai; the Hélène and Edouard Leclerc Fund, Landerneau (2019), the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2018), the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico (2018), the FRAC Bretagne, Rennes (2018), the Baalbek Archaeological Site Museum, Lebanon (2016), the MAC VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine (2015) and the Center Pompidou, Paris (2013).

Théo Mercier was a resident at the Villa Medici in 2013, and nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2014. In 2019, he won the Silver Lion at the Venice Dance Biennale.