Kiki Smith — Être ici, Maintenant, Partout — Mo.Co, Musée d'art contemporain de Montpellier — Exhibition — Slash Paris

In 27 days: June 13 → October 11, 2026

In parallel with the group exhibition Under the skin, presented at MO.CO. Panacée that will explore monstrous and mutant forms in contemporary art, the MO.CO. presents this summer the great American artist Kiki Smith. After having dedicated its spaces to the works of contemporary women artists such as Berlinde De Bruyckere, Huma Bhabha or Françoise Pétrovitch, we will celebrate the generous work of an artist who has for more than forty years worked through an incredible wide range of materials, in order to explore the question of ways of being oneself in the world — socially, organically, spiritually, as animals or stars.

Kiki Smith, an American artist born in Germany in 1954, has developed a multidisciplinary practice since the 1980s, mixing sculptures, prints, photographs, drawings, books, tapestries and various objects. One of the characteristics of her works is experimentation through diversity and the rejection of any form of hierarchy. A central subject remains the human body, often feminine — its anatomy, its imprint, its relationship to the living. Sometimes altered or fragmented, it also appears to be peaceful, unifying and a meeting point of energies.

The exhibition, designed in close collaboration with the artist, will bring together more than a hundred works, covering a wide variety of mediums and techniques, over more than forty years of production. It will explore, in the totality of the spaces that extend over nearly 1500 m2 spread over three floors, the relationship between the different aspects of her work through a narrative centered on the body. Both complex set of organs, held together under the skin, it is also the sign of our social identity, dressed and accessorized. It is also the seat of our animality, our connection with nature and a widespread spirituality

A bilingual catalogue, richly illustrated, will also be published in French and English. The graphic design has been entrusted to Atelier Tout va bien. It will be accompanied by short texts commissioned for the occasion to a multidisciplinary range of authors.

Curators: Numa Hambursin, CEO of MO.CO., Rahmouna Boutayeb and Pauline Faure, Curators, et Deniz Yoruc, Exhibition Assistant.