Nicolas Daubanes France, b. 1983

For close to twelve years, Nicolas Daubanes has been producing work on the prison world (drawings, installations, videos), resulting from immersive residencies in prisons. From his drawings with iron filings to his monumental installations of concrete, he deals with the moments of both suspension and the fall: it is a question of seeing before the fall, before the ruin – a vital impulse. The iron filings – a fine, dangerous, and volatile material – used in the drawings and wall drawings refer to prison bars and, by extension, to escape. 

Nicolas Daubanes’ works are part of important private and public collections, including the Frac Occitanie Montpellier, the Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, the Frac Franche-Comté, the Mrac Sérignan, and the Fonds d’art contemporain Paris collections. Nicolas Daubanes was the winner of the 2016 YIA Prize, the 2017 Grand Prix Occitanie d’art contemporain, and the 2017 Mezzanine Sud Les Abattoirs prize. He was also the winner of the 2018 Amis du Palais de Tokyo prize. In 2019–20, his solo exhibitions were presented at the Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, the Château d’Oiron, and Palais de Tokyo. In 2021, he was awarded the Drawing Now prize.