Catalog for the exhibition presented at Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA from March 31 to September 17, 2023.

Often considered marginal, Pierre Molinier is nevertheless an important figure recognized in France and abroad. The monographic exhibition at the Frac incorporates the artist’s sources of inspiration and movements: surrealism, fetishism and tantrism, as well as those he preceded – queer art; previously unpublished archives and testimonials; contemporary affiliations (Cindy Sherman, Luciano Castelli, Bruno Pelassy, Betony Vernon…) and more historical ones (Clovis Trouille, Claude Cahun or Hans Bellmer).

To accompany this major exhibition, this book brings together contributions from Marie Canet, art critic and curator, who presents the exhibition in the form of a foreword, and Claire Jacquet, art critic, curator and director of the Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA since 2007, which takes the form of an essay on the artist’s posterity in the field of contemporary art. Author, journalist and exhibition co-curator Emmanuelle Debur looks back at the artist’s fascinating history. Philosopher, author and art critic Géraldine Gourbe offers us a rereading of Molinier’s work, linking it to the figures of Fantômas and Irma Vep, before linking it to certain works in the Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA collection through the question of the portrait, so cardinal in the works of the master of exhibitionism, and its evolution over time.

The book also includes several image notebooks and a notebook containing all the titles in Molinier’s library.