Jakob Gautel

Catalogue

Jakob Gautel — 2026-03-22T08:18:17Z

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

The exhibition catalogue is in the making.
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, Zaoum.

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

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.”

Epitaphs

2026-03-12T10:57:00Z

Funerary Stele
Project for a projection in a museum, 2026
The funerary stele of Democleides, son of Demetrios, ΔΗΜΟΚΛΕΙΔΗΣ:ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟ, probably killed in the Battle of Nemea in 394 BC, 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 a migrant boat.

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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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

The work is shown in April 2026 at the exhibitition Fondation Quartier, at the invitation of Delaunay-Klimowski Foundation and Pan Café, 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

State of the World

Jakob Gautel — 2025-08-21T06:19:00Z

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

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

Facing the Sea

Jakob Gautel — 2025-08-15T07:02:42Z

Under the blazing sun in Greece, in a heat resistant and fireproof aluminised suit, thinking of Caspar David Friedrich, August 2025. A dystopian version of The Monk by the Sea.

Facing the Sea

Greece, August 2025, photo: Jason Karaïndros

Epilogues

Jakob Gautel — 2025-07-22T05:56:00Z

Return to Sender
End of the exhibition, return of the works, Paris, July 2025 — the final “turn of events”!

Return to Sender, Paris, July 2025

At the Comédie Française for the final performance of Tiago Rodrigues' play Hécube pas Hécube on July 21, 2025, moving encounters with Molière and Voltaire!

Hécube, pas Hécube, Tiago Rodrigues, Comédie Française, Paris 2025 — on stage, a veiled sculpture on its pedestal

Molière's armchair at the Comédie Française

Voltaire in his armchair on his pedestal at the Comédie Française

Europeana
Patrik Ourednik's breathless, depressing, and exhilarating journey through 20^th-century history, discovered through Heiner Goebbel's play Everything That Happened and Would Happen.
The book finishes with the End of History: “…a new age in human history, but it would no longer be historical. But lots of people did not know the theory and continued to make history as if nothing had happened.”

Europeana, Patrik Ourednik, 2001

One last glance…

Petit Palais, Paris, September 2025

Bernard Tranchandon has come up with an astonishing postscript. In André Franquin's comic strip Spirou and Fantasio, in the 1956 volume The Dictator and the Mushroom, a magical substance softens metal. Here's what happens on page 8:

Spirou and Fantasio, The Dictator and the Mushroom, André Franquin, 1956

Mediation

Jakob Gautel — 2025-06-22T04:04:30Z

Visits and workshops led by Mathilde, Marius and the team of Galerie Fernand Léger, April-June 2025

With Mathilde, May 2025, photos: JG

With Marius, April and May 2025, photos: Mathilde Ardaillon

La médiation à Léger
Presentation of the mediation activities, Galerie Fernand Léger, Ivry-sur-Seine, June 20 to July 5, 2025. The exhibition runs in parallel with Glaner - Gleaning, which features work by students from the municipal art school.

La médiation à Léger, exhibition, June-July 2025

Photo: Jean-Michel Albert

Photo Studio

Jakob Gautel — 2025-06-08T07:02:12Z

April-June 2025, in the “photo studio” of the exhibition, with our special guest Lara Croft and on the pedestal

The Dream Team Carole, Malika, Lara and Claire, April 5, 2025

Jakob and Lara, June 7, 2025, photo: Robert Milin

Brigitte and Lara, May 24, 2025, photos: Jason Karaïndros

April 5, 2025, photo: Marie-Pierre Dieterlé

Martine as Joan of Arc, April 8, 2025

Shellfish Gathering, Bettina, April 26, 2025

On a Boat, Winda, May 20, 2025

Making Of, in the photo studio with Mathilde, May 7, 2025

Some of the youngsters' interpretations, May 2025

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Photo session with the architecture students of ENSAPLV, May 21, 2025

To be or not to be, Clovis, June 7, 2025

The Welder, Gilles, June 7, 2025

The Donkey, Marie, June 7, 2025

Tribute to the Pedestal, Gaël by the sea, May 29, 2025, photo: Émilie Malinas

Encounters

Jakob Gautel — 2025-06-02T09:48:00Z

Artist talk with Leonor Nuridsany, exhibition curator and art critic, author of the catalogue text, May 17, 2025.

Artist talk with Leonor Nuridsany, Mai 17, 2025, photo: Mathias Gautel

Encounter with Jean-François Rodier and members of APAI (Association for the Protection of Ivry Bees), on Saturday, May 24 at 3 pm, on the occasion of World Bee Day.

Meeting with Jean-François Rodier and members of APAI, May 24, 2025, photo: Jason Karaïndros