PASCAL MONTEIL: PRIX MARATIER AT MAHJ

Pascal Monteil, winner of the Prix Maratier awarded by the Pro mahJ Foundation, is the featured artist of the permanent path at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme in Paris, on view until January 4, 2026. Born in Nîmes in 1968 and now living and working in Arles, Monteil is the sixth artist to receive the Prix Maratier, a distinction established by Claire Maratier to honor a living artist whose research engages deeply with Jewish culture and history.

For this occasion, Monteil presents six large-scale embroideries inspired by emblematic historical episodes: from the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 to the rescue of the Jewish community of Kaunas, the capital of Lithuania, in 1940, thanks to visas issued by the Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara. These historical events, however, do not stand alone; they overlay other memories, recollections, and fictions that populate the artist’s imagination. Among his sources are the writings of Aharon Appelfeld, the poetry of Federico García Lorca, the dystopian scenarios of Philip K. Dick, and the visionary imagery of Sergej Paradžanov. Monteil himself emphasizes: “There is never a subject; I only create refuges.”

These “nests of stories” have been taking shape since 2015, when the artist began embroidering on antique fabrics, working thread by thread. As Christian Lacroix has written, Monteil’s thread “becomes at times gouache, watercolor, glaze, thick oil, charcoal, incising the canvas and revealing day by day, month by month […] processions, exiles, frightened architectures, poets on stretchers, artists’ bed descents, and boats for prophets.”

The exhibition, curated by Pascale Samuel, curator of the modern and contemporary collection at mahJ, is organized in collaboration with Galerie Regala in Arles, which represents the artist.

The exhibition path goes beyond celebrating the prize itself, narrating an entire creative biography. After studying at the Villa Arson in Nice, Monteil spent fifteen years traveling across Asia and the Middle East in search of old and broken threads, with the goal of weaving a new history of painting through them. He worked as a weaver in Tabriz, a ceramist in Kyoto, an icon painter in Istanbul, and a boatman in Calcutta—life experiences and journeys that shaped a unique artistic language, oscillating between memory and invention.

Since 2017, living in Arles, the artist has been embroidering directly on his knees on nineteenth-century hemp canvases, without preparatory sketches, using writing as the starting point and transforming words into tapestries. “I love to imagine places where eras overlap and contradictory thoughts coexist,” Monteil explains. “I immerse myself in art history and invite the figures who inspire me, with all humility. It is my way of telling the poetry and complexity of the world.”

His career is marked by numerous solo exhibitions: in 2022, Mon Dieu, mon Dieu dans quel monde m’as-tu jeté! and in 2020 À la merci du soleil at Galerie Regala, Arles; in 2017, Je ne reconnais plus le soleil, curated by Aldo Bastié and Christian Lacroix at the Centre d’Art René d’Anjou, Château de Tarascon; in 2016, Llanto por la Monja Gitana at the Federico García Lorca Museum in Granada; in 2015, The World upside down, curated by Alka Pande at Jor Bagh Station, Delhi. In 2013, Anywhere out of the world at the National Museum of India, New Delhi (curated by Aruna Adiceam), Enfer, Eden at the Caillebotte Estate in Yerres, and L’incendie de l’âme at the Instituts Français in Tangier and Fez.

In 2010, he presented Amor, Oro y Demonios at the Santa Clara Convent, Cartagena (curated by Annouchka de Andrade); in 2008, L’appartement Perret, habité par La voix humaine at Appartement Perret, Le Havre (curated by Elisabeth Chauvin); in 2007, Spirit of the Cities at the Instituts Français in Chittagong and Phnom Penh. In 2006, Marayat & John Lee at Bug Gallery, Bangkok (curated by Ark Fongsmut) and Calcutta: vaisseau baroque at Maison des Indes, Paris. In 2004, L’Inde at the Centre des Arts, Enghien-les-Bains (curated by Dominique Roland); in 2002, Fûdo at Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris; and in 2000, Les Villes, also at Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris.

The exhibition at mahJ, held at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme, Hôtel de Saint-Aignan (71, rue du Temple, 75003 Paris), will be open according to the museum’s visiting hours, closed on Mondays except for school groups by reservation. More information is available at www.mahj.org.