Damien Deroubaix. La valise d'Orphée

Christine Germain-Donnat (under the direction of), Damien Deroubaix. La valise d'Orphée, Paris, Éditions Lord Byron, 2021

1st edition
Edition of 300 copies
Hardcover, 22 x 28 cm, 64 pages
French English Edition
Translated from French by Ben Lenthall
ISBN: 978- 2-491901-11-0

Damien Deroubaix. La valise d'Orphée is the catalog published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition from June 15 to October 31, 2021 which inaugurates the reopening of the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris (FR). It includes a preface by Christine Germain-Donnat, the presentation of the "Valise d'Orphée" by Joanna Chevalier, a statement by Damien Deroubaix collected by Annabelle Gugnon, as well as a tale written by her.

Born in 1972 in Lille, France, Damien Deroubaix lives and works in Meisenthal and Paris. He graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Etienne and the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe. Since 2003, his work has been exhibited in the best European institutions and has been the subject of numerous solo shows, particularly in Switzerland and Germany.

The artistic practice of Damien Deroubaix is ​​marked by a great diversity of forms and techniques: oil painting, watercolor, engraving, tapestry, engraved wood panels, but also sculpture and installation. This formal variety responds to the most eclectic sources and references, often cohabiting in his works in a spirit that is reminiscent of the iconoclastic one of Dada montages. Motifs borrowed from medieval macabre dances mingle with evocations of tragic chapters of contemporary history; topical images rub shoulders with mythology and folklore; the history of art and the metal music scene collide there. Openly expressionist, his paintings often summon apocalyptic themes, and this is perhaps what makes them so timeless.

Exhibition curator and artistic advisor, Joanna Chevalier is also director of the Beirut Art Fair. Born in Lebanon and graduated in political science from the American University of Paris, she was artistic director at Ernst & amp; Young. She has organized exhibitions notably in France and Lebanon, such as at the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton with Hervé Mikaeloff in 2010 or the production of installations during the “Nuit Blanche” in Paris in 2012.

Christine Germain-Donnat began her career in 1999 as a curator at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, then at the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Musée de la Céramique in Rouen. While directing the Grobet-Labadié museum, she was in charge of the steering of the museum of decorative arts and fashion project at the Château Borély in Marseille from 2008 to 2013, before taking the direction of the heritage and collections department in Sèvres- City of ceramics. Christine Germain-Donnat took over the management of the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in 2019.

Psychoanalyst and art critic, Annabelle Gugnon has long worked for Beaux-Arts Magazine and regularly collaborates with ArtPress. She has contributed to numerous exhibition catalogs and has led series of debates at the Louis Vuitton Cultural Space. She is passionate about childhood and the way adult life is rooted in first experiences. She trained in psychoanalysis at the La Borde clinic in Blois, a psychiatric establishment founded by Dr Jean Oury who has greatly contributed to the development of institutional psychotherapy.