CYRIL DE COMMARQUE
Biography
Cyril de Commarque (b. 1970, France) is a French artist based in Rome, following extended periods of work in London and Berlin.
Working across sculpture, installation, painting, sound and large-scale interventions, Commarque explores the relationships between human societies and the natural world. Territory, borders, extraction, deforestation and the coexistence of human and non-human life recur throughout his practice.
From the shifting national boundaries traced in Frontiers to the satellite patterns of forest destruction behind Primitive, the burnt landscapes of Sunset Boulevard, and the collective intelligence of wild bees explored in API-LOGO, Commarque questions the boundaries through which modern societies have separated humans from territories, landscapes and other forms of life.
His work considers ecology not as a separate subject, but as a network of relationships between living systems, human structures, memory and landscape. Materials are central to this approach: trees, burnt wood, metal, gold, satellite imagery, sound and living organisms become both witnesses and agents of transformation.
In 2016, Commarque created Fluxland, a 25-metre-long mirrored sculptural vessel that navigated the River Thames during the Totally Thames Festival in London. Conceived as a sculpture, sound work and moving platform for encounters, Fluxland hosted performances, conversations and events while travelling through the city.
In Primitive, presented as a solo exhibition at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome in 2024–25, Commarque drew on satellite imagery of primary forests to examine the recurring visual patterns produced by deforestation, mining, logging, intensive agriculture and human settlement.
In 2026, API-LOGO extended this investigation towards relationships between species. Developed through research into wild bees, collective intelligence and cognition, the work was installed at the Museo Orto Botanico of Sapienza University of Rome, with the support of FAO, Sapienza Università di Roma, the French representation to the United Nations agencies in Rome, and CNR.
Commarque’s work has been presented internationally at institutions and venues including MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Grand Palais, Paris, Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Royal Academy of Arts, London, Saatchi Gallery, London, and Fondazione Giorgio Cini during the Venice Biennale.
He lives and works in Rome.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & PROJECTS
2026
API-LOGO, permanent public installation, Museo Orto Botanico, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome. With the support of FAO, Sapienza Università di Roma, the French representation to the United Nations agencies in Rome, and CNR.
Materia Madre, Lingua Madre, group exhibition, Galleria Erica Ravenna, Rome, 12 May – 30 September.
2024–2025
Primitive, solo exhibition, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 17 December 2024 – 19 January 2025.
2022
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London. Curated by Conrad Shawcross and Alison Wilding. Theme: Climate, 21 June – 21 August.
2019–2020
Artificialis, solo exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2 November 2019 – 2 May 2020.
2019
Sweet Harmony: Rave | Today, group exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, London, 11 July – 14 September. With Carsten Nicolai, Conrad Shawcross, Jeremy Deller, Molly Macindoe, Weirdcore, Lost Souls of Saturn and others.
2018
Art of the Treasure Hunt, Colle Bereto, Tuscany. My Eden Is a Lie. Curated by Kasia Redzisz. With Marina Abramović, Kevin Francis and others.
2017
Treeline, artist residency, Capalbio, Italy.
2016
Fluxland, large-scale sculptural vessel, sound performance and public programme on the River Thames, Totally Thames Festival / City of London, London.
2015
Frontiers, solo exhibition, MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome.
2014
Analog, group exhibition, Blain|Southern, Berlin. Curated by Mario Codognato. With Jannis Kounellis, Bruce Nauman, Max Neuhaus, Lawrence Weiner, Gilberto Zorio, Carsten Nicolai and Ignacio Uriarte.
2013
L’Échappée Belle, group exhibition, Grand Palais, Paris. With Blanca Li, Camille Henrot, Marc Turlan, Fabrice Hyber, JR, Xavier Veilhan and others.
Fragile!, group exhibition, Le Stanze del Vetro, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, during the 55th Venice Biennale. Curated by Mario Codognato. With works by Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Mario Merz, Gerhard Richter, Giovanni Anselmo, Jannis Kounellis, Luciano Fabro, Lawrence Weiner, Joseph Kosuth, Giuseppe Penone, Mona Hatoum, Ai Weiwei, Pipilotti Rist, Rachel Whiteread, Carsten Nicolai and others.
2011
42152, solo exhibition, Musée du Mémorial, Compiègne, France.
2010
La Racine Perdue, le Père de mon Père / Die verlorene Wurzel, der Vater meines Vaters, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
2009
Écriture silencieuse, group exhibition, Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris. Curated by Hervé Mikaeloff.
Subduction Zone, solo exhibition, Galerie 5213, Berlin.
Feel at Home, video programme, Museum Night, Riga.
2008
La Racine Perdue, le Père de mon Père / Die verlorene Wurzel, der Vater meines Vaters, solo exhibition, St. Johannes-Evangelist-Kirche, Berlin. Curated by Caryl Ivrisse.
2007
La Racine Perdue, le Père de mon Père / Die verlorene Wurzel, der Vater meines Vaters, 92Y, New York.