With an exhibition dedicated to Claire Fontaine, the Atelier Hermès' 2024 programme opens with a politically charged artistic proposal. Since her creation in Paris in 2004, this "collective artist" - a gendered identity referred to with singular female pronouns - has consciously sought to take up and rework existing references and works of art in order to develop an aesthetic of repetition rather than one that relies upon the creation of new and ostensibly "original" works. Claire Fontaine's name pays homage to Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (1917), an influence that is reflected in the title of her exhibition at the Atelier Hermès: "Beauty is a Ready-made". 

Ten of her works are presented here, including neon sculptures from the ‘Foreigners Everywhere’ series, whose title inspired that of the 60th Venice Biennale that will open in spring 2024. Claire Fontaine offers an incisive and critical take on the patriarchy, the climate crisis and global inequality, proclaiming that "art has become a place for political refugees.” On display for the first time here, her work Cut-up offers an illustration of this belief. It explores the history and cultural complexity of migration in the town of Palermo (Italy), where the collective lives and works, and asks whether, in the face of political disempowerment, art might have the power to transform the world.