Huma Bhabha's First French Solo Show at MO.CO. Montpellier

The MO.CO. contemporary art center in Montpellier hosted 'Une mouche est apparue, puis disparut', the first solo exhibition in France for Pakistani-born sculptor Huma Bhabha (b. 1962, Karachi), curated by the late Vincent Honoré. The show, on view from November 18, 2023 to January 28, 2024, brought together around fifty sculptures and graphic works spanning the artist's career. Bhabha, based in the United States and represented by David Zwirner (New York) and Xavier Hufkens (Brussels), creates hybrid figures from found materials like cork, polystyrene, plastic, wire, and self-hardening clay. Her work references ancient sculpture from Greece, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Asia, as well as modernists like Alberto Giacometti and Auguste Rodin, and pop culture including John Carpenter films and Marvel comics. The exhibition began with three 2004 color photographs of a body covered in a black trash bag with clay hands, then unfolded chronologically, juxtaposing sculptures and graphic works. Notable pieces included 'Centaur' (2000), a studio chair with a hooded anorak echoing Joseph Beuys' 'Fat Chair', and 'The Past is a Foreign Country' (2019), a life-sized nude leaning against a wall with a shredded tire halo. Bhabha's work addresses colonialism, war, displacement, and contemporary ruins. The title adapts a text by Persian poet and astronomer Omar Khayyam. Caroline Cros reviewed the exhibition for artpress.