TOULON.- In 2024, the villa Noailles, in partnership with the Toulon Provence Méditerranée Metropolis and The Drawer magazine, is launching an event dedicated to the emerging young drawing scene.

For this first edition, the exhibition at the Hôtel des Arts TPM showcases a selection of works, most of which were published last June in The Drawer magazine, Vol. 24, Under 25, featuring the work of about thirty fourth- and fifth-year art school students from France and abroad.

Curated by Barbara Soyer and Sophie Toulouse, and set by designer Joachim Jirou Najou, the exhibition presents an overview, offering a snapshot of drawing today, as it is thought and practiced in 2024.

How are students drawing today? With what tools?

To what ends?

What world(s) are they depicting?

Celebrating the richness of contemporary drawing, increasingly seen in the form of installations, the exhibition explores the motifs that fuel it and highlights the notable place of intimacy and collectivity in the creations and narratives produced. Oscillating between lightheartedness and gravity, the drawings by these young artists emerge as attempts to connect themselves to the world, giving personal stories a collective significance, offering a way to counteract the misfortunes and stagnation of our time. This exhibition feels like a journey through the drawing and moods of the moment, where permeability takes shape, and connections are reinvented, creating new scenarios.

Drawing emerges as a space of freedom, healing, distancing, and transformation for the younger generation.

This exhibition is intended as a prelude to the possible creation of a new drawing competition to be launched in 2025 by the villa Noailles, in partnership with The Drawer and the Métropole Toulon Provence Méditerranée, with the aim of discovering, supporting and promoting the most contemporary drawing practices.

THE DRAWER

The Drawer is an editorial and curatorial platform founded by Sophie Toulouse and Barbara Soyer. Since 2011, it has published the eponymous drawing magazine, bringing together a selection of artists around a common theme each semester. To date, 24 volumes have been published, creating a unique editorial collection focused on contemporary drawing.

Since 2017, The Drawer has also published monographs and artist books, including Joie and That’s all Folks by Caroline Rennequin (2024 and 2021), Les Dinosaures végétariens and Inventaire by Lamarche-Ovize (2023 and 2017), Feelings on Felt by Léa Belooussovitch (2021), Girrrland by Frédérique Loutz (2021), Fiat Lux by Pierre Seinturier (2021), >°GuΣ by Grégoire Alexandre & Christophe Brunnquell (2020), Memory Lines by Stéphane Manel (2019), and Désordre by Gil Lesage (2018).

The Drawer also curates monographic and collective exhibitions dedicated to showcasing drawing in its various forms, including “Les Choses” (2013), “Post-it notes - Paul Davis” (2014) at galerie du jour agnès b in Paris, “Heroes” (2016), “Ladies Only” (2019), and “Modes et travaux” (2020) at Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois in Paris.