Chris Cyrille
Biography
Chris Cyrille is a poet, art critic and independent exhibition storyteller. After training in art theory and philosophy at the University of Paris 8, he decided to work for several magazines including L'Oeil Magazine and Art Absolument. Member of AICA (International Association of Art Critics), winner of the Dauphine Prize for Contemporary Art in 2017, of the Young Curator Prize of the 69th edition of Jeune Création and of the AICA France Prize in 2020. His mainly focuses as a curator in new scenographies and ways of storytelling, as well as in Caribbean and African geographies. He co-curated the exhibition Dynamis at the Galerie du Crous in 2017 and curated Cargaisons at the Marché Dauphine (Saint-Ouen) the same year. With Olivia Maëlle Breleur of Maëlle Galerie and art critic Horya Makhlouf, he organised the exhibition/discussion 8,46 (July 2020), an echo of the latest international black and anti-racist movements. He writes for several print and online magazines including AFRIKADAA, Point Contemporain, Jeunes Critiques d'Art and Le Quotidien de l'Art. He has worked at the Centre Pompidou as a research officer, alongside the curator Alicia Knock. In 2021, he conceptualised and organised the exhibition Mais le monde est une mangrovité (Jeune Création, Romainville, 15 January-22 February 2021). Actually, he is working on setting up the next Intercontinental Biennial of Guadeloupe with the curator and art critic Simon Njami.
Konferenzen, Round Table, Jurys
2021
Monde de l’art, identités et politique de la représentation
(Art world, identities and politics of representation) Round table with Vanessa Desclaux, Françoise Vergès, Céline Seror, Nadine Hounkpatin, around the works of Dalila Dalléas Bouzar, Na Chainkua Reindorf, Bouchra Khalili...
Musée du Quai Branly, Paris.
2021
Poétique de la mémoire dans l’art et la photographie
Discussion with Sonia Recasens, art critic, and Christine Barthe, curator, coordinated by Céline Seror, Nadine Hounkpatin, around the works of Gosette Lubondo, Dalila Dalléas Bouzar...
Musée du Quai Branly, Paris.
Entre bouleversements et subversion, le pouvoir des mots
Discussion with Simon Njami, art critic and curator, and Myriam Mihindou, artist, coordinated by Céline Seror and Nadine Hounkpatin. Musée du Quai Branly, Paris.
Enjeux environnementaux du XXIe siècle : peut-on penser l’écologie du point de vue de la mémoire coloniale?
Round table with Dalila Dalléas Bouzar, artist, Rafael Lucas, researcher at the Centre d'Etudes linguistiques et littéraires Francophones et Africaines of the University of Bordeaux and Guillaume Blanc, lecturer in contemporary history at the University of Rennes 2
Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MECA, Bordeaux.
2020
Sentir Mangrovité
2021
Post-graduate jury of the Beaux Arts de Lyon
Selection committee with: Oulimata Gueye, Eva Barto, Estelle Pagès.
The DDESSINPARIS prize
Selection committee: Christine de Chirée, Claire Luna, Jacques Deret, Marianne Dollo, Jenny Graser, Colette Tornier, Edwart Vignot. Atelier Richelieu, Paris
The DDESSINPARIS prize
Selection committee with: Ronan Grossiat, Boris Bergmann, Yvon Lambert, Marisol Rodriguez, Giulia Andreani, Magali Lesauvage, Colette Tornier, Marie-Ange Moulonguet
Screening and discussion with the artist Minia Biabiany. Centre Pompidou, Paris
Experiences
In progress
Writing residency at the Ateliers Médicis as part of the Sch-isthme project with the artist and choreographer Smaïl Kanouté.
Project of a poetic collection Banîles at the Ateliers Médicis. Curator of the Biennale Intercontinental de Guadeloupe under the direction of Simon Njami.
2022
Writing residency at the Villa Medici, Rome.
Winner of the Cnap 2022 curatorial research grant.
February 2022
Rapporteur of the 2022 edition of the Aware Prize alongside : Alicia Knock, Thierry Leviez, Camille Richert.
Curator of the cycle of events — Mais le monde est une mangrovité. Expérimentation réussies / et échouées / de l’Ubuntu
in the framework of the exhibition Ubuntu, un rêve lucide
curated by Marie-Ann Yemsi. Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
2021
Art critic, prizewinner of the first edition of the Bourse Émergence, ADIAF, Paris.
Member of the scientific committee The Slave Route, UNESCO.
Curator of the exhibition Mais le monde est une mangrovité at Jeune Création, Romainville.
2020
Winner of the AICA France Art Critic Award 2020.
February 2020
Winner of the Prix Jeune Commissariat JC69. Jeune Création, Romainville.
2017
Winner of the Dauphine Prize for Contemporary Art 2017.
2017-2018
Editor for Art Absolument and L'Oeil Magazine. Member of Jeune Critique d'Art and Hors-Cadre gallery, Paris.
