Smith (stylized as SMITH; born 1985) is a French transdisciplinary artist-researcher. Smith experiments with and explores the links between contemporary humanity and its boundary figures - ghosts, mutants, hybrids - engaging his own body and that of his collaborators - writers, astronauts, shamans, engineers, designers, performers or composers - in indisciplinary projects. Disturbing genres, languages and disciplines, Smith proposes curious works, in the etymological sense of cura: curiosity and care for the world around us, the terrestrial and the celestial, the human and the non-human, the visible and the invisible, imagination and fiction. Thermal cameras, drones, neon lights, implantations of electronic chips and subcutaneous meteorites, atomic mutations or trance practices characterise his fluid work composed with technological and spiritual means that incorporate the dimensions of mystery and dream.

Early life and education

Born in 1985 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Smith has a degree in 2010 from the . Smith has also studied at the

Paris-Sorbonne University Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; ) was a public university, public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Paris. In 2018, it m ...

(2007), and the

Aalto University Aalto University (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Espoo, Finland. It was established in 2010 as a merger of three major Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economic ...

(2009) in Helsinki. He graduated from Le Fresnoy (National Studio of Contemporary Arts) in

Tourcoing Tourcoing (; ; ; ) is a city in northern France on the Belgian border. It is designated municipally as a commune within the department of Nord. Located to the north-northeast of Lille, adjacent to Roubaix, Tourcoing is the chef-lieu of two ca ...

in 2012, and a PhD from UQAM in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

in 2022.

Work

Smith's initial artistic medium was photography; later installations include a variety of media. His work, both plastic and theoretical, is now described as "indisciplinary". Smith has engaged in collaborations with scientific and philosophical research teams and labs - such as the

French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...

in 2012, and the IRAP (Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie) in 2018. In the interactive installation "Cellulairement" (2012), a thermal capture device in the installation space was connected to an electronic chip implanted in Smith's body, allowing Smith to feel the presence of viewers. Many of Smith's early works explore questions of gender and personal identity. The idea of transition is a central element of his artistic practice. French photographer and photography specialist Arnaud Claass wrote about Smith's work, in the preface of Smith's first monographic book: "There is no mystery; Smith's approach to the visible, at once luminarist and dark, is valid as an image of the uncertainty of sexual roles. Questions of gender, a current in philosophy over the last twenty years or more, occupy an important place in the intellectual development of mith'soeuvre.". Along with French curator Nadège Piton, Smith wrote the book "Transgalactic" in 2020 about queer & trans presences in contemporary photography, and curated the eponymous exhibition presented in March 2023 at La Filature, Mulhouse. His most recent projects are "Spectrographies" (2014), "TRAUM" (2015–18), "Saturnium" (2017) and "Desideration" (2019–2021). They were presented during cinema festivals in Europe, at the Centre Pompidou, and Théâtre de la Cité Internationale (Paris), at the CND (Pantin), at the Dance Museum (Rennes) and at the CCN-ICI (Montpellier). Smith's visual works were exhibited as solo shows at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie (Arles), at the Filles du Calvaire gallery and Palais de Tokyo (Paris), at the Photographic Museum of Helsinki (Finland), as well as several countries in Europe (Sweden, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland), Asia (China, Cambodia, South Korea) and Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Uruguay). Smith is represented by Christophe Gaillard gallery in Paris. He is currently an associate artist at La Filature - Scène Nationale in Mulhouse, and laureate of the 2023 Villa Albertine in partnership with the French writer Marie NDiaye.

Publications

His first book, "Löyly" (Filigranes) was published in 2013, followed by "Saturnium" (Actes Sud) in 2017, a long-length interview by art historian Christine Ollier in 2017, "Juste entre nous" (André Frère), the opera booklet "Astroblème" (Filigranes), and the traval-photobook "Valparaiso" (André Frère). * Dorothée Smith (préf. Arnaud Claass), Löyly & Sub Limis, Le Château d’Eau, 2011 () * Dorothée Smith et Dominique Baqué, Löyly, Filigranes, 2013 () * Smith, Antonin Tri Hoang, Jean-Philippe Uzan, Claire Moulène et Alain Fleischer, Saturnium - Conte musical et photographique, Musicales Actes Sud, 6 September 2017 (ISBN 3149028113723) * Smith, Valparaiso (Si tu pleux), André Frère Editions, 2018 * Smith & Christine Ollier, André Frère Éditions, 2017 () * Smith, Astroblème, Coffret "1+2 L'origine manquante", Filigranes, 2018 () * Smith, Désidération (prologue), Textuel, 2021 () * Smith, Desiderea Nuncia, Palais Books, 2021 () * Smith, Paris (Contralto), Palais Books, 2021 ()

Solo exhibitions

* 2008–2009: galerie AnnexOne, galerie Dask, Copenhague * 2009: ''Nuit Blanche'', Chapelle de la maternité Sainte Croix, Metz, avec une performance de

Sir Alice ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part o ...

* 2011–2015: ''Löyly'', 4th festival Photo Phnom Penh, Institut Français du Cambodge (commissariat de Christian Caujolle); , Brago, Portugal; Festival Photofolies, Rodez; The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finlande * 2011: ''Sub Limis'', galerie du Château d'eau de Toulouse, Toulouse * 2012–2013: "Hear us marching up slowly",

Rencontres d'Arles The Rencontres d'Arles (formerly called ''Rencontres internationales de la photographie d'Arles'') is an annual summer photography festival founded in 1970 by the Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, the writer Michel Tournier and the historian ...

; Photospring Festival of Caochangdi, Chine (commissaire : Didier de Faÿs) * 2015: ''Entre deux fantômes'', Pavillon Vendôme, Clichy * 2016: ''Давайте Мечтать'', galerie les Filles du Calvaire, Paris * 2017: ''TRAUM'', Patricia Conde Galeria, Mexico, Mexique; Institut Chorégraphique International, Montpellier (commissaire : Christian Rizzo) * 2018: ''Spectrographies'', San José foto Festival, Uruguay * 2021, "Désidération (Anamanda Sîn)", Rencontres d'Arles

Selected works

* 2009 ''Löyly'', series of photographs * 2010 ''Sub Limis'', series of photographs * 2011 ''C19H28O2 (Agnès)'', video installation * 2012 ''Spectrographies'', interactive installation * 2015 ''TRAUM'', transdisciplinary project (danse, cinema, sculpture, photography, performance) * 2017 ''Saturnium'', series of photographs * 2017-2021 ''Désidération'', indisciplinary * 2022-2023 ''Dami'', indisciplinary

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith 1985 births French new media artists French mixed-media artists French non-binary people French transgender artists Living people Artists from Paris Bioartists Non-binary artists Transgender non-binary people