VILNIUS.- In Honour of a Reborn Pain is a project by contemporary French artist Tania Mouraud (b. 1942, Paris), who has created a special exhibition for the Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of Art, focusing on Litvak culture and historical heritage. Yiddish—the language through which the artist seeks new ways to write history—is highlighted as a cultural phenomenon. Phrases from poems by Litvak poets Avram Sutzkever, Rivka Basman, and Chaim Grade, and songs written in the Vilnius Ghetto by Hirsch Glickas, Alexander Volkovisky, and Shmerke Kaczerginski, become sources for Mouraud’s works.
The artist’s recent pieces continue her long-standing research into the plasticity of typography, with a specific focus on Yiddish script. Using paper, fabric, and steel, Mouraud brings projections of historical trauma into the present through a visual language rooted in a distorted calligraphy she created from cursive alphabets. Featured works include In the salty immensity of human tears (In zaltsikn yam fun di mentshlekhe trern, 2024), Conversation (Shmues, 2020), the series “To Slide” (Glitshn, 2023), and “Words Search” (Mots Mêlés, 2015), inspired by J. Peerce’s Where is the little street? (Vu iz dus gesele) and the song “Perlimpinpin” by French singer Barbara. Also included are Frieze IV. Two Tears Hang in My Eyes (Deux larmes sont suspendues à mes yeux), drawn from the poetry of Wang Wei (2011–2012); the “Properly” series (Pasik, 2024); Imprints (Gaufrage, ongoing from 2023); and “The shattered letters” (Les lettres éclatées) series, inspired by Ghandi’s quotes Why Do You Close Your Eyes? (WDYCYE, 2016) and Should It Go on Forever? (SIGOF, 2016). The exhibition also features the film Once Upon a Time (2012), where Mouraud conveys a deep sense of dread as she watches trees uprooted by ogre-like machines.
“How do we respond to the conflicts of our time? How do we act for peace?” Mouraud’s rhetorical considerations insist on the necessity of hope and rebellion in the face of violence and injustice. In her own words, she declares: I Still Have a Dream! (ISHAD, 2014).
Tania Mouraud, of Jewish and Romanian heritage, represents a Francophile cultural field. She began her career as a painter before moving into photography, and in the late 1990s, video art. Her work spans a wide range of personal and ethical themes, particularly suffering and responsibility. Her artistic expression is characterised by a deliberate schematism as a counterpoint to emotionality: “If my paintings are schematic, it’s only because I want to escape from pathos in my search for precision. I like what is clear”.
In the late 1970s, she participated in group and solo shows in the US and built connections with the New York art scene. She co-founded TRANS with Thierry Kuntzel, collaborated with John Gibson, and exhibited at PS1 in New York, where she met artists such as Dara Birnbaum and Dan Graham. Around the same time, she began creating her signature Wall Paintings – monumental black letters forming words and phrases blurring into illegibility. In 1968, Mouraud publicly burned all her paintings, abandoning traditional expression.
Since 1975, transformed verbal phrases and Yiddish characters have been central in her installations, giving them a new graphic appearance. She has exhibited widely in France, the UK, Canada, and the USA, spanning texts, photography, video art, and sound performance with strong social engagement. In 2015, a retrospective was held at the Centre Pompidou-Metz.
This exhibition is conceived in collaboration with architect Amandine Mineo (France), Mouraud’s long-term creative partner.
Tania Mouraud is represented by: Galerie Ceysson & Bénétière (France); Galerie Claire Gastaud (France); GAEP Gallery (Romania)
