Pauline Curnier Jardin was born in Marseille in 1980. A visual artist, filmmaker and performer, she is a graduate of several institutions in Europe (ENSAPC and ENSAD in Paris, Goldrauschkunstlerinnen Projekt Stipendium in Berlin, Linköping University in Sweden). She is a lecturer in the Master of Fine Arts programme at the ZHdK in Zurich and a tutor for the De Ateliers residency in Amsterdam. She co-founded the women’s cabaret-show The Vraoums in 2007 and the Feel Good Cooperative in 2020 in Rome during the Coronavirus pandemic, a collective made up of female art and sex workers. She is represented by Ellen De Bruijne Projects (Amsterdam) and ChertLüdde (Berlin) galleries.

Through a practice that combines video, drawing, sculpture, installation, music and performance, Pauline Curnier Jardin creates singular narratives driven by a transgressive and stylised aesthetic. Her films and immersive environments draw upon references to ancient mythology, fairy tales, folklore and various religious rituals. They are at once spaces of popular entertainment and catharsis, inhabited by characters who defy social norms. The artist seeks to deconstruct stereotypical representations – particularly those of women – by creating new imaginaries in which all reversals are possible, as in a grand carnival.

Recent solo exhibitions include M HKA (Antwerp,2025); Galeria Municipal (Porto, 2025); Kiasma (Helsinki, 2024); MACRO (Rome, 2024); Centraal Museum (Utrecht, 2023); Frac Corsica (Corte, 2022); Crac Occitanie (Sète, 2022); Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin, 2021). She has taken part in numerous group exhibitions and international events, including: Thailand Biennale (Phuket, 2025) ; “How To Be Happy Together” (Para Site, Hong Kong, 2024); “After Laughter Comes Tears” (MUDAM, Luxembourg, 2023); “Ceremony (Burial of an Undead World)” (HKW, Berlin, 2022); “Antibodies” (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2020); Manifesta 13 (Marseille, 2020); 57th International Biennale (Venice, 2017). She has won several prizes, including the Preis der Nationalgalerie (Berlin, 2019), and has taken part in various residencies, including the Villa Medici (Rome, 2019-2020) and the Rijksakademie (Amsterdam, 2015-2016).