Mauvais Corps Christian Fogarolli

Alberta Pane gallery is pleased to present Mauvais Corps, an exhibition by Italian artist Christian Fogarolli (b. 1983), across its two Parisian venues. This new project features two previously unseen bodies of work. Running concurrently, the artist is also presenting a second exhibition, Criminal Mind, at the Musée de la Préfecture de Police. These two exhibitions are in dialogue, complementing one another as they explore interrelated themes.
 

Mauvais Corps invites us to reflect on how societies perceive and judge bodies. Fogarolli deconstructs established representations and challenges imposed norms, questioning what is considered ‘normal’ or ‘deviant’, and how such labels contribute to exclusion. For the artist, the body is a space of tension, caught between rejection and the search for acceptance.
 

In the first part of the exhibition, a striking series of portraits immediately captures the viewer’s attention. Faces and bodies — sometimes deformed or altered — hover between fragility and strength, confronting the audience with intensity. These portraits evoke pain, transformation, and resilience, embodying the defiant presence of those who are considered ‘outside the norm’. Their powerful presence symbolises not only a refusal to be silenced but also the visible difference that unsettles. Each portrait becomes a symbol of a unique voice, a visible and affirmed identity that society tries to contain. By confronting and mastering pain, the individual asserts superiority over their human condition, transforming destructive experiences into proof of resilience and strength.
 

In the second part of the exhibition, the visitor enters a world inspired by alchemy and nature — a suspended space between science and ritual. The space features an archival video alongside blown-glass sculptures encasing plants and roots, evoking the appearance of laboratory flasks or ceremonial artifacts. These works embody both care and the potential for healing, while also alluding to society’s efforts to control the body. Continuing his reflection on the body and its representations, Fogarolli delves into the history of medical treatments — often used to ‘correct’ or ‘normalise’ what is perceived as different. He shows how certain healing practices can also serve as mechanisms of control. Historically, deviance — whether physical, behavioural, or mental — has often been addressed through so-called care practices aimed at correcting or suppressing what is perceived as deviant or non-conforming. Herbs, roots, infusions, rituals — tools used to neutralise what escapes categorisation, to pacify what society refuses to accept.
 

As the exhibition unfolds, Christian Fogarolli suggests that perhaps there is no such thing as a ‘mauvais corps’: What if history itself had shaped them that way? In this case, it is simply a question of scarred bodies, with stories running through them, struggling to find peace. Through a rich visual language — combining archival video, installations, photographs, and sculptures — his works invite the viewer to rethink stigmatisation, and to see these ‘mauvais corps’ not as objects of rejection, but as spaces of resistance.