Jakob Gautel

State of the World

Jakob Gautel — 2026-07-21T06:19:00Z

Large deflated balloon, in preparation for the performance Exhaustion, July 2026

Exhaustion
Performance, Landes, 18 July 2026
I deflate a balloon as I breathe in, until there is no air left inside.

Exhaustion

Performance, Landes, 18 July 2026, photos: Jason Karaïndros

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Climate Change

Polar bear on its ice floe, experimental setup, Paris, October 2025

Out of Breath

Assemblage, deflated globe balloon under a glass cake dome, Paris, summer 2025

Out of Joint

Assemblage, old globe and antique Thonet chair with broken cane seat, Athens, summer 2023

Explosion

Animation, performance projet, Paris, 2017

Helin

From the serie Heroes of the Dardanelles, 3^rd Çanakkale Biennial, Turkey, 2012
“I have so many questions about my future, they are like a huge question mark on my shoulders.” (Helin, secondary school pupil)

The Golden Cage

Assemblage, guilded cage in the form of a globe, created for the exhibition Just another word at Eriko Momotani's, Paris, 1999

Rendez-vous à Saint-Briac - See you in Saint-Briac

Jakob Gautel — 2026-05-16T08:40:10Z

Art festival and drawing exhibition
Vincent Victor Jouffe, artist and collector, is exhibiting his drawings and his collection at the Saint-Briac Art Festival. Works by Jason Karaïndros and myself are on display.
May 14-17, 2026, Rectory, 35800 Saint-Briac-sur-Mer
https://www.rendezvousasaintbriac.com/?pgid=mknxjwmg2-a3e02bd3-3b43-4f38-98a7-5e23c4575d40

Vincent Victor Jouffe presents his collection at Saint-Briac, 15 May 2026, photos: Olivier Ratouis

An overview of the collection

Sculptures by Nicolas Fouré and drawings by Vincent Victor Jouffe, Saint-Briac, May 2026, photo: VV Jouffe

Rendez-vous à Saint-Briac, 2026 program

The Tower of Babel

Jakob Gautel — 2026-04-19T10:02:42Z

The Tower of Babel, Stefan Zweig, 1916, with woodcuts by Frans Masereel, International Stefan Zweig Society, Vienna 1964

The Tower of Babel, the profoundly pacifist, cosmopolitan and pro-European text by Stefan Zweig, written during the First World War in 1916, in the beautiful edition published by the Internationale Stefan-Zweig-Gesellschaft, Vienna 1964, accompanied by two expressionnist woodcuts by Frans Masereel.

Amok, Stefan Zweig's 1922 novel - a copy saved from a book burning in Nazi Germany, Göttingen, May 1933, Museum of Resistance and Deportation, Besançon

Epitaphs

2026-04-12T09:57:00Z

Funerary Stele
Projection, project for a museum, 2026
The funerary stele of Democleides, son of Demetrios, ΔΗΜΟΚΛΕΙΔΗΣ:ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟ, who was probably killed in the Battle of Nemea in 394 BC, is kept at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
In the space below the deceased, originally painted blue to suggest the sea, an empty migrant boat apears. The Mediterranean Sea, “an open-air graveyard”…
→ Text by the art historian Marina Lambraki Plaka

On the funerary stele of Democleides from the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, appears an empty migrant boat (photomontage).

Athens, April-May 2026

Conclusive projection tests on a plaster cast

Nada
Postcards and an engraved polished black granite tablet, kept in its original packaging, 2025, a tribute to Goya's famous etching of the Disasters of War.
The work has been shown at the exhibition Postcards and Mail Art, at the art space Immanence, Paris, in November-December 2025.
This work could very well represent “the artist's final piece”.

Nada. Ello dirá. - Nothing. The event will tell. (in the sense of All that for nothing…)
The Disasters of War, pl. No. 69, Francisco de Goya, 1810-1815, Prado, Madrid

Nada, postcard, 2025

Nada, epitaph plaque, 2025

Postcards and Mail Art, Immanence, Paris, 2025

The postcard editions Entre!, Point of View, Roma 2000 and Nada, among many others, on the wall at Immanence

Everything must go
The famous slogan announcing clearance sales, “Everything must go” becomes, when engraved on black polished granite, a philosophical memento mori not just of any individual destiny, but also an epitaph of our hyper-consumerist way of life…

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In French…

…and in German

The work was part of the exhibition Uncommon Bases at Galerie Fernand Léger, the Ivry-sur-Seine municipal gallery of contemporary art, in 2025.

Tout doit disparaître in the exhibition Uncommon Bases, Galerie Fernand Léger, Ivry-sur-Seine, 2025

Fatal Error
A computer screen capture with a “fatal error” message engraved on a black polished granite plaque: The unfathomable mystery of life and death finds its reflection in the code of computer programming.
Translation into computer code: Peter Hanappe

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Fondation Quartier

Jakob Gautel — 2026-04-10T15:53:00Z

Delaunay-Klimowski Foundation and Pan Café have joined forces to invite you to discover the Fondation Quartier 's collection in display cases, Friday 24 and Saturday 25 April 2026 from 4pm until midnight.
On the programme:
- the Fondation Quartier's Spring-Summer collection,
- a “brilliant” meal,
- a sale/flea market/exchange/barter of very limited-edition multiples.
Pan Café, 9 place de la Libération, 93450 L'Île-Saint-Denis, RER D or train H, stop Saint-Denis, then a 5-minute walk
https://www.pancafe.fr/
I show the Peace Council.

The Peace Council flyer in one of the Fondation Quartier display cases at Pan Café, L'Île-Saint-Denis, April 2026

Catalogue

Jakob Gautel — 2026-03-22T08:18:17Z

The exhibition catalogue is released in summer 2026.
With a text by Leonor Nuridsany, an introduction by the mayor Philippe Bouyssou and a conclusion by Hedi Saidi, director of the gallery. The graphic design is by Delphine Rocher and Laura Vince, Zaoum.

Socles peu commun - Uncommon Bases
Pre-layout of the catalogue of the exhibition at Galerie Fernand Léger, Ivry-sur-Seine, in 2025.

Memento mori

Jakob Gautel — 2026-03-20T05:56:00Z

Life and death. An eternal theme.

Some of the works were created with the complicity of Jason Karaïndros.
See also the video performance Breath and the chapter Covid & Co.
The Nest and Breath have been shown in 2021 at the exhibition MIRACLE at Immanence, Paris, co-curators Caroline Perrée and Cannelle Tanc, and Hourglass in 2025 at the exhibition Du miel aux cendres, De Bouwput, Amsterdam, curator Jean-Philippe Paumier.

Standing in Line

Assemblage, March 2026, ancient cutlery box, model-making figurines, 39 X 30,5 X 4,5 cm

Death Mask or Vanity
Mask and child skull, June 2024

Pregnancy

This photo from August 2020 takes up the pose of the actress Demi Moore nude and pregnant, photographed by Annie Leibovitz in 1991.
The photo has been published in the collective artist book Almanach - Ides of March, Paris 2021, at the date of 08/21/20.

The Nest

Ancient human skull in a bird's nest, Karlsruhe, September 2020

The Nest and Breath at the exhibition MIRACLE, Immanence, Paris 2021

In the foregroud Jason Karaïndros' work The Salutation, Immanence, Paris 2021

Hourglass

Performance photograph, November 2020
Life is running out.

The Servant

Assemblage, March 2021
“Eager to serve you.”

Socles peu communs - Uncommon Bases

Jakob Gautel — 2026-03-10T07:33:49Z

The catalogue for the exhibition Socles peu communs - Uncommon Bases, which took place in 2025 at Galerie Fernand Léger — the contemporary art gallery of Ivry-sur-Seine with a strong committment to public art — is published in summer 2026.
With a text by Leonor Nuridsany, an introduction by the mayor Philippe Bouyssou and a conclusion by Hedi Saidi, director of the gallery. The graphic design is by Delphine Rocher and Laura Vince, Zaoum.

Socles peu commun - Uncommon Bases
Pre-layout of the catalogue of the exhibition at Galerie Fernand Léger, Ivry-sur-Seine, in 2025.

Troy Pavillon, 2nd Malta Biennale

Jakob Gautel — 2026-02-26T09:14:00Z

11 March to 29 May 2026
Old Armory of the Knights, Il-Birgu, Malta
https://www.instagram.com/p/DV0l_TlCCSG/
https://maltabiennale.art/
https://www.arttv.com.tr/yazi/canakkale-bienalinin-troya-pavyonu-malta-bienalinde-izleyiciyle-bulusuyor
https://www.turkiyetoday.com/culture/troys-layered-heritage-showcased-at-2nd-malta-biennale-in-malta-3216278

Organised by the Çanakkale Biennale, the Troy Pavilion is presented as part of the official program of the 2^nd Malta Biennale CLEAN | CLEAR | CUT, artistic direction Rosa Martinez.
Artists: David Blandy, Georgios Katsagelos, Jakob Gautel, Katrin Korfmann & Jens Pfeifer, Pınar Yolaçan, Seyhan Boztepe
Curator: Deniz Erbaş

The exhibition presents a selection of contemporary works that reinterpret the narratives, knowledge, and images associated with Troy as a multilayered Mediterranean cultural heritage shaped by mythology and archaeology, foregrounding its ongoing relationship with the present.
Supported by Dr. Gökhan Gündoğdu Museum and Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi.
In collaboration with Çanakkale Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism (Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Türkiye), Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University-Faculty of Fine Arts, and the Troy Excavations.

My video work War in Troy? is shown there.

War in Troy? Breaking news presented by Tolga Özdeniz, Çanakkale, 2018

War in Troy? at the Troy Pavilion, 2^nd Malta Biennale 2026

2^nd Malta Biennale 2026, Troy Pavillon

Press release

Download (167.5 KiB)

Peace Council

Jakob Gautel — 2026-01-26T18:09:00Z

26 January 2026
I have decided to found my own PEACE COUNCIL.
You are welcome to join, for a small contribution of one billion.
Cash only.

ME, MYSELF and I, the official portrait appropriately framed

“Every man is a king so long as he has someone to look down on.”
Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here, 1936

The flyer was on display in April 2026 at the exhibition Fondation Quartier, organised by Delaunay-Klimowski Foundation and Pan Café in L'Île-Saint-Denis.

Kings and Queens
Théâtre de la Tempête, group photo taken during the ENSAPLV scenography project on Shakespeare's EDWARD III, January 24, 2026, with director Cédric Gourmelon on the left.

Kings and Queens, Théâtre de la Tempête, 1/24/2026, with Cédric Gourmelon on the left

Die Kronenklauer - The Crown Thieves
by F.K. Waechter and Bernd Eilert, Diogenes, first published in 1972, several reeditions

I thought of this book from my childhood, deeply anarchic and with a strong idea of community, power sharing and democracy, which is very relevant today.
Die Kronenklauer is a wonderful children's book by F.K. Waechter and Bernd Eilert, recounting with great imagination the adventures of three youngsters in an imaginary land under the despotic rule of the pig king, König Schwarte. Very unhappy with this king's government, the children decide to steal his crown and give it to an old trusted friend, the wise owl Dr Johannes Loy. After a while, they realise that they don't approve some of the new king's decisions either. So they steal the crown a second time, melt it down and make lots of little crowns, one for each of them!

Die Kronenklauer by F.K. Waechter and Bernd Eilert, Diogenes

Die Kronenklauer by F.K. Waechter and Bernd Eilert

In the group portrait at the end of the story, everyone is wearing their own little crown.

The stolen crown

The crown of Empress Eugénie, which was damaged when the thieves at the Louvre dropped it on October 19, 2025.
Photo: Thomas Clot, Louvre Museum