— To which is painting directed in every case — to the imitation of reality as it is, or of appearance as it appears?
Glaucon— Of a phantasm.
Socrates— Then the mimetic art is far removed from truth — it produces everything, because it touches or lays hold of only a small part of the object, and that a phantom…
Republic, X — 598a-b
— Τίνος ἄρα ἡ ζωγραφική; τοῦ μιμουμένου τῶν ὄντων ὡς ὄντων, ἢ τοῦ μιμουμένου τῶν ὄντων ὡς φαινομένων;
Γλαύκων— Τῶν φαινομένων.
Σωκράτης— Ἔστιν ἄρα ὁ μιμητὴς πολύ πόρρω ἀπὸ τῆς ἀληθείας, καὶ ἂν βούληταί τι ποιεῖν, ὅτι ἂν ὀλίγον ἅπται ἐξ αὐτῶν, ἐκείνόν ἐστιν εἴδωλον· ὥστε ἔστιν εἴδωλον ἐκ τοῦ εἰδώλου…
Without sustained, rigorous conversation, the medium drifts — between speculation, decoration, and oblivion. On Painting is a three-year international cycle of five immersive symposia, holding that conversation across five historically resonant cities.
Each session gathers fifteen to twenty-five invited artists, theorists and curators over three days — two closed-door working sessions framing one public day of lectures, roundtable and exhibition opening, in dialogue with a local institution.
Each edition produces a catalogue. The cycle closes with a book of synthesis, a long-format podcast, and a feature documentary. The project is hosted by a French endowment fund and structured for the long term: not an event, but an inquiry.
“The fundamental architectural problem becomes visible only in the house on fire.”— Giorgio Agamben
Each symposium unfolds over three days: two closed-door working sessions for the invited cohort, framing one public day of lectures, roundtable and exhibition opening with the host institution.
Arrival of the cohort. The question of the edition is set, and the first working session opens around an aperitif and a long dinner. Stakes, terms, and tensions are placed on the table.
The public day. Dialectic lectures by selected speakers, a public roundtable, and the vernissage of an exhibition curated for the edition in partnership with a host institution.
The second working session: a long lunch, and the synthesis of the cohort's three days. Conclusions are drawn, the editorial seeds of the catalogue are planted, departures follow.
The cycle opens where the question begins: in the city that first put painting on trial. Mimesis revisits Plato's suspicion of images, not to settle it but to inhabit it — testing whether a painting can still be a site of ontological presence rather than a copy of a copy.
From the city that codified historical painting, Anamnesis turns to memory — what painting carries forward, what it lets fall. History painting, social abstraction, the politics of forgetting. The image as index, as threshold, as occasion.
At the edge of Europe, where landscape pushes back against language, Aisthesis stages a confrontation: how does sensible perception translate into thought, and back? The Burkean and the Jamesonian sublimes — outward and upward, inward and through.
Where the modern art world recomposed itself, Automaton meets the question that now organises everything: the machine. From Orpheus to Saint Francis, from Duchamp's "bête" to the present generative noise — what is left of painting when the image makes itself?
The cycle returns to where it began — not as conclusion but as ignition. Krisis gathers the four prior conversations into a single ethical question: what does a painting owe the present, and what does the present owe a painting? The polychrome ember: the smallest possible fire, kept lit.
The symposia begin in the room. The documents are how they reach the wider field — and how the inquiry continues past the three days.
One published volume per edition: commissioned essays, transcripts of the dialogues, an iconographic portfolio of the contributing artists, and a critical apparatus. Edited under the editorial direction of the cycle.
A final volume gathering the five editions into a single sustained argument on the future of painting. Co-authored across the directorial team, framed for the canon of contemporary art writing.
One curated exhibition per edition, opening on the Saturday public day, produced in partnership with the host institution and freely accessible to the public. The exhibition extends and prolongs the edition's question in the gallery.
The Saturday public roundtables of each edition, filmed and released in long form. The room is the work: the dialogue, the disagreements, the silences. Distributed openly, with bilingual subtitles where relevant.
In-depth filmed conversations with each contributing artist, critic and curator — in their studios, in their cities, around their work. A growing portrait of a generation thinking through painting in real time.
Long-format audio conversations released alongside each edition — one main episode per symposium, with shorter capsule episodes between. Distributed on YouTube long-form, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
A feature-length film built across the three years of the cycle: footage of every symposium, in-studio sequences with the contributing painters, interstitial essay-films. Designed for the festival circuit (Berlinale, IDFA, Visions du Réel) and theatrical / Arte / Mubi release.
Painter. Carries the artistic vision of the cycle and the iconographic line of the editions. Conceived The Spinning Owl as the founding gesture of the project.
Critic and curator. Shapes the curatorial line of each edition, the selection of artists and thinkers, and the dialogue with partner institutions.
Carries the financing, the budget, the communication strategy and the editorial direction of the outputs in collaboration with the team.