International
With a keen interest in the history of ideas and interdisciplinary connections (Dictionary of Death, Dictionary of Pornography), in ancient and contemporary art, and in how the past shapes the future, he has curated exhibitions on the archaic sculpture of Antoine Bourdelle, the political dimension of Beethoven (“Ludwig van,” Philharmonie de Paris, 2016–2017), the architectural sketches of Marc Barani (“Tenir lieu,” Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, 2019), the instinct-driven works of Johan Creten (“Bestiarium,” Roubaix, Musée de La Piscine, 2022), as well as to the iridescent work of Philippe Cognée (“La peinture d’après,” Paris, Musée Bourdelle, 2023) and the animalistic tropism in the work of Annette Messager (“Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps,” Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, 2026). The author of some thirty books and about a hundred essays, he has thus explored painting, sculpture, and architecture, literature and psychoanalysis, as well as the works of Adel Abdessemed, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Bernard Pagès, Hélène Cixous, Louis Le Kim, Gustave Courbet, Pierre Bonnard, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Auguste Rodin, and Michelangelo, to whom he dedicated a book co-authored with Jack Lang (Fayard, 2012). His books *Alberto Giacometti vs. Antoine Bourdelle: From Conversion to Renunciation* (Presses du réel, 2016) and *Bernard Pagès: The Song of Possibilities* (2020) have been honored by the Academy of Fine Arts. After serving as a research fellow at the National Institute of Art History, he was in charge of the sculpture collection and later the photography and 20th- and 21st-century collections at the Bourdelle Museum. As an artistic director, he works with several institutions. A columnist for specialized publications (Artpress, Connaissance des arts, etc.), he is also the director of the “D’après” literary series, published by Flammarion, for which he has published works by Pierre Michon, Philippe Forest, Marie-Hélène Lafon, Yannick Haenel, Colette Fellous, and Maryline Desbiolles. Finally, and most importantly, he is the author of two novels—*Qui vive* and *Malgré*—which have been praised by the press and were published in 2019 and 2023, respectively, by Gallimard in the “Blanche” series. He is a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.