Nicolas Daubanes.
A contemporary artist

Musée de l’Armée – Invalides

  • From 8 November 2025 to 17 May 2026
  • 129 rue de Grenelle & 2 place Vauban, 75007 Paris
  • musee-armee.fr

The Musée de l’Armée welcomes visual artist Nicolas Daubanes, who has intervened throughout the permanent galleries devoted to the Third Republic—from the Paris Commune to the Second World War—with around thirty of his works.

His sculptures, drawings, and photographs enter into dialogue with the historical displays, offering a thoughtful and striking reflection on the close relationship between art and History.

His work connects his artistic language to the memory of these sites, focusing on four themes present in the museum: insurrection, memorial landscapes, confinement related to repression, and resistance.

Nicolas Daubanes, Bunker, les calanques de l’Escalette, 2023. Poudre d’acier aimantée, incrustation d’acier incandescent sur verre.<br />
© Nicolas Daubanes © Adagp, Paris 2025.

Nicolas Daubanes
Bunker, the Escalette creeks, 2023.
Magnetised steel powder, incrustation of incandescent steel on glass.
© Nicolas Daubanes © Adagp, Paris 2025.

Vue de l'exposition "Nicolas Daubanes. Un artiste contemporain " au Musée de l'Armée ©Nicolas Daubanes

Views of the exhibition
© Nicolas Daubanes 

Vue de l'exposition "Nicolas Daubanes. Un artiste contemporain " au Musée de l'Armée ©Nicolas Daubanes

Born in 1983 in Perpignan, Nicolas Daubanes explores the limits of existence and the human condition, conducting workshops in prisons and participating in artist residencies. His work is rooted in transmitting memory in historically significant locations. He graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in Perpignan and was a resident at the Villa Medici in 2024–2025.

At the same time, he presents Ombre est lumière. Mémoire des lieux at the Panthéon from November 19, 2025, to March 8, 2026, as part of the project “Today, the Ten Key Sites of National Memory” organized by the ONACVG.

 

Curators

  • Laëtitia Desserrières, Head of the Drawing Collection, Department of Fine Arts and Heritage
  • Julien Voinot, Collection Manager, 19th-Century and Symbolic Arts Department

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