EN: A hybrid monograph/artist book of Nathalie Du Pasquier’s work. Published on the occasion of Nathalie Du Pasquier’s solo show at MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, this book navigates the space between an exhibition catalogue and the artist book with juxtapositions of photographs of Nathalie Du Pasquier’ works, installation views of the show at MACRO, and extracts from texts by various writers and figures fundamental for her practice. These come together to create an extension of the exhibition itself, in a form that channels the spirit of the show: the pages become exhibition spaces embracing associations and combinations allowing for a deeper understanding and exploration of Du Pasquier’s work, and her imagination at large. It is a glimpse into the possibilities offered by her oeuvre, which can be approached, interpreted, and experienced from countless perspectives. It is the very vastness and variety of her work, and her inspirations, that make the exploration of her work—and as a result this publication—non-exhaustive. This publication is part of an ongoing study of her work and documents her exhibition at MACRO, “Campo di Marte,” Du Pasquier’s biggest show to date which brought together over one-hundred paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and cabins, from the early 1980s to present day. FR: Une publication hybride, entre monographie, livre d’artiste et catalogue, documentant l’ensemble de l’œuvre de Nathalie Du Pasquier. Publié suite à l’exposition personnelle de Nathalie Du Pasquier au MACRO à Rome (Museo di Arte contemporanea di Roma), puis au Mrac Occitanie, Sérignan, sa plus grande exposition à ce jour qui a rassemblé plus de cent peintures, sculptures, dessins et gravures, du début des années 1980 à aujourd’hui, ce livre oscille entre catalogue d’exposition et livre d’artiste en juxtaposant des photographies des œuvres de Nathalie Du Pasquier, des vues d’installation de l’exposition au MACRO et des extraits de textes de divers écrivains et personnalités fondamentales pour sa pratique. Ces éléments s’assemblent pour créer une extension de l’exposition elle-même, sous une forme qui traduit l’esprit de l’exposition : les pages deviennent des espaces d’exposition accueillant des associations et des combinaisons qui permettent une compréhension et une exploration plus approfondies du travail de Du Pasquier, et de son imagination au sens large. C’est un aperçu des possibilités offertes par son œuvre, qui peut être abordée, interprétée et vécue sous d’innombrables angles. C’est l’immensité et la variété mêmes de son œuvre et de ses inspirations qui rendent l’exploration de son travail — et par conséquent cette publication — non exhaustive. Publié à l’occasion de l’exposition de Nathalie Du Pasquier « Campo di Marte » au MACRO, Rome, en 2021 et au Mrac Occitanie, Sérignan, en 2022.

Artist’s book. “This publication was planned before it was decided to coincide it with the exhibition Fair Game Leipzig at the Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig. It is composed of drawings that I made in 2013. The cover instead was designed in 2019 in relation to the exhibition in Leipzig. I wanted it to be in contrast with the gentle drawings inside.” Nathalie Du Pasquier Published on the occasion of the eponyoums exhibition at Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig in 2019.

Prior to becoming an artist, and before reaching Italy, while not yet twenty years old, Nathalie Du Pasquier spent six months in Gabon, an ex-French colony. She stayed in Port Gentil, the second-largest city in the country, blending in with its everyday life. She made new friends. And it was a friend of hers who would then her a newspaper cutting that Nathalie then decided to turn into a comic strip. What came out is a story with the intense colours and the contagious humour so typical of Africa: the adventures of a clumsy Don Giovanni who brings mirth to the whole community with his undertakings. The little book offers a novel dimension to the artist’s work: the comic strip, the bande dessinée, in the finest of French tradition.

Campo di Marte was devised in March 2020, at a time when Nathalie Du Pasquier was not painting. After cutting out photos of paintings produced between the 1980s and 2020, the French artist then placed them in a sequence as if they were a series of typefaces, focusing solely on their formal qualities and the scope for interpretation offered by their assembly. What comes out is an enchanting game of nonsense, an everyday surrealism in which the images make up sentences of sorts, interwoven with various elements taken from the world of books: titles, poems or mere calculations – times when the artist was lost for words. Campo di Marte will also be the name of an exhibition, curated by Luca Lo Pinto, due to be held at the MACRO in Rome at the end of 2020. As Du Pasquier states: “The book was supposed to come out at the same time as the exhibition opening. That won’t be the case, but it doesn’t matter as they really are two separate things. This paperback is not a catalogue at all: it’s something you can browse through even while sitting on the underground.”