Exhibitions

New Exhibition Quiet Insistences Opens at NEO VogelART in Nice

IARLA BYRNE12 May, 20262 Mins read186

A new exhibition entitled Quiet Insistences opens at NEO – art & culture lab x VogelART in Nice this week and runs until 7th June

The exhibition Quiet Insistences, curated by Morgane Tschiember, pays tribute to the rituals that shape our lives. In contemporary societies, rituals have not disappeared with modernity; they have evolved and taken new forms. Where traditional societies once sanctified religious or communal rites, modern life has produced rituals that are more discreet, often secular, yet just as structuring.

These rituals emerge through gestures we consider ordinary. Their defining quality is their banality. They no longer depend on solemnity, but on repetition. To repeat is to give shape to time, to make it inhabitable. This is not about cataloguing our personal habits. Artists themselves generate rituals – sometimes unconsciously, often by inviting the public to reconsider these gestures. Absurd, philosophical, contemplative, transgressive, humorous, or intrusive, such acts carry within them the convictions and inner worlds of individuals.

Rituals offer the illusion of control over reality. They operate as rites of continuity. Together, they create new symbols: fluid, unstable, and constantly evolving. Contemporary rituals, therefore, signal not the loss of meaning, but its transformation. They reveal that even within a desacralized society, human beings continue to invent symbolic forms to orient their existence. There will always be new gestures tied to ideas in motion- gestures that shape new realities, new ways of thinking, living, and sharing: diffuse, fragmented, yet persistently alive.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Alicja Kwade, Anne Imhof, Cecilia Bengolea, Charlotte Stuby, Coco Capitan, Didier Fiúza Faustino, Douglas Gordon, Emilie Pitoiset, Gelitin, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Gregor Hildebrandt, Ignazio Mortellaro, John Armleder, Mai Thu Perret, Maurizio Cattelan, Michael Sailstorfer, Morgane Tschiember, Olivier Mosset, Pieter Vermeersch, Pola Sieverding, Ryan Gander, Sara Favriau, Sylvie Fleury, Théo Mercier, Thomas Liu Le Lann, Tracey Emin, Yoko Ono

ABOUT NEO

In the autumn of 2022, VogelART Edition, the renowned German publisher specialising in contemporary art editions, transformed Le Dojo at the port of Nice into a vibrant pop-up art destination. The first initiative was a success, followed by two more acclaimed pop-ups in 2023, setting the stage for a new cultural landmark.

By chance, Sebastian and Simon Vogel, the founders of VogelART, had come across a hidden gem, a former workshop once dedicated to the production of billboards and neon signs in the locale. Following an extensive renovation, the space was reborn as NEO: over 300 square metres of industrial loft architecture dedicated to contemporary art and culture.

The name NEO is both a tribute to the building’s neon-lit history and a symbol of renewal – a new beacon for contemporary creation, driven by VogelART and the artists, curators, and cultural voices it welcomes.