In parallel with the group exhibition À fleur de peau presented at MO.CO. Panacée, which will explore monstrous and mutant forms in contemporary art, MO.CO. is dedicating its spaces this summer to the renowned American artist Kiki Smith. Following exhibitions of other major female figures in contemporary art such as Berlinde De Bruyckere, Huma Bhabha, and Françoise Pétrovitch, the institution continues its celebration of artistic practices centered on the question of being in the world — the social, spiritual, animal, and celestial body.

Kiki Smith, an American artist born in Germany in 1954, has developed since the 1980s a multidisciplinary practice encompassing sculpture, printmaking, photography, drawing, books, tapestries, and various objects. A defining feature of her work is experimentation through diversity and a rejection of any hierarchy of mediums. A central theme remains the human body, often female: its anatomy, its imprint, and its relationship to the living world. At times unsettling, altered, or fragmented, it also appears serene and unifying, becoming a point of convergence for different energies.

The exhibition, developed in close collaboration with the artist, will bring together more than one hundred works spanning over forty years of production and a wide range of media and techniques. Occupying nearly 1,500 m² across three floors, it will explore the interrelation of the different aspects of her work through a narrative centered on the body. The body is presented as a complex set of organs held together under the skin, but also as a marker of social identity — clothed and accessorized. It is also the seat of our animality, our connection to nature, and a diffuse spirituality.

The exhibition unfolds through sequences that form narrative threads, while also introducing disruptive elements to avoid a linear reading that could not fully account for Kiki Smith’s practice. Her work instead explores ruptures and points of tension, without didactic intent, favoring porosity and the refusal of hierarchy. Thus, the body as a social sign — governed by expected codes — opens the exhibition path. It is followed by minimalist sculptures representing anonymous bodies, emphasizing posture as sign and our shared minimal envelope. Next come sculpted, drawn, or photographed fragments in dialogue with objects from the heritage collections of the University of Montpellier. The journey continues with animality and the relationship to nature. Finally, the upper level is devoted to the celestial dimension of our bodies and beings, and to the invisible that connects us to the stars.

A richly illustrated bilingual catalogue will also be published in French and English. Graphic design has been entrusted to Atelier Tout va bien, and it will include short multidisciplinary texts commissioned for the occasion.

Curatorship: Numa Hambursin, General Director of MO.CO., Rahmouna Boutayeb and Pauline Faure, curators, and Deniz Yoruc, exhibition assistant.