From March 18 to May 25, 2026, in partnership with the international contemporary drawing fair Drawing Now Paris and the Printemps du dessin, the Goethe-Institut de Paris presents EXQUISITE BODY, a solo exhibition by Timo Herbst. Through a series of installations, large-format drawings, and video works, the artist explores the movement of the human body within public space and the traces it leaves across social, urban, and political landscapes.

Originally from Leipzig and Berlin, Timo Herbst has developed an artistic practice over several years focused on gestures, their political dimension, and their capacity to generate space. Drawing on historical research and recordings of both individual and collective movement, his works investigate how bodies communicate, transform, and contribute to the construction of social forms.

The exhibition brings together major works from different phases of the artist’s practice since 2018, including the monumental drawing Ephemera (2021–2025), the series Dynamic of the City (2021–2022), Zipper Merge (ongoing since 2023), and One of All (2022), as well as interactive and video installations such as Rhythmusanalyse (ongoing since 2019) and Shanghai Cables (2021). Presented together, these works form an open narrative inspired by the exquisite corpse principle, where temporalities, historical references, and contemporary observations overlap.

EXQUISITE BODY invites viewers to rethink the body as a sensitive, active, and memory-bearing entity. Gestures of walking, resistance, or gathering are analyzed as genuine social choreographies, revealing the close interactions between corporeality, architecture, and public space. His work highlights the ways in which these dynamics shape our modes of perception, communication, and collective action.

To complement the exhibition and offer deeper insight into Timo Herbst’s work, the Goethe-Institut presents a varied public program:

• March 18 at 7 pm: Opening reception in the presence of the contributors and the artist
• March 31 at 4 pm: Live painting performance by artist Taqi Spateen, with musical accompaniment by Majd Boukthir
• April 8 at 5:30 pm: Screening of Direct Action (2024) by Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell, in the presence of the filmmakers
• April 29 at 7 pm: Screening of experimental films and short films from the Light Cone collection, followed by a discussion