Chronology

1990

Arthur Fouray is born in Paris on 9 May 1990. He lives and works there.

1991

The archive begins at the age of one. Drawings, objects, films and photographs made from 1991 onward are gathered, much later, under before ARTS and Pre-Natal, two sections of the site that hold the work made before it was called work. → before ARTS, Pre-Natal

1998

He enters the École Alsacienne, Paris, and stays until the baccalauréat.

2008

Baccalauréat, École Alsacienne, Paris.

He enters ESAG Penninghen, Paris, for a bachelor in art direction.

2010

Bachelor in Art Direction, ESAG Penninghen, Paris.

2011

He enters ECAL, Renens, for a Bachelor of Arts HES-SO in Fine Arts. His tutor is Philippe Decrauzat.

The earliest sound work is made this year — eleven years before the first release under the name rt4a.

Pré-Natal, his first text on his own work.

2012

Cartels à Jouer: wall labels drawn as paintings, and paintings written as labels. These are the earliest works of the painting practice.

C.R.O.M., a group show in Saint-Émilion with Nicolas Degrange and Paul Limoujoux.

Five texts are written this year, among them Iceberg, the record of a four-hour walk through fifty Paris galleries on 8 June, and a forty-two-page théorie mémoire for Stéphanie Moisdon.

2013

Bachelor of Arts HES-SO in Fine Arts, ECAL, Renens.

Dear Peggy, Treize, Paris, 6 April – 4 May 2013. Fourteen ECAL artists selected by Gallien Déjean, Stéphane Kropf and Stéphanie Moisdon. It is his first exhibition.

Assistant at Pierre Huyghe Studio, Paris, for the retrospective at the Centre Pompidou curated by Emma Lavigne.

a + o – begins, a collaborative curatorial practice that runs until 2015. → a plus o minus

DE)ª(F, a book of 62 pages.

He enters the Master of Arts HES-SO in Fine Arts at ECAL, in the programme directed by Stéphanie Moisdon.

2014

The aaafff paintings begin, and he writes the first, unsigned text about them. → aaafff

Summer Camp, Happy Baby Gallery, Crissier.

The Rise of the New Creative Class, Allianz Club, Renens.

2015

Master of Arts HES-SO in Fine Arts, ECAL, Renens.

M, Micronauts Publishing, Vevey. The first of two artist’s books that treat the book as an exhibition format rather than its record. → M

Spectre, curated by Elisa Langlois, Espace Quark, Geneva. The painting made for it, 000fff (Polyvision) (Spectre), takes its name from Abel Gance’s three-screen process for Napoléon: a format built for showing becomes the image itself. → Spectre

Osmosis, La Placette, Lausanne. → Osmosis

Life is a Bed of Roses (un roman), Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Paris, 27 May – 4 July 2015, conceived by Stéphanie Moisdon. → Life is a Bed of Roses

Nuit des musées, curated by Simon Paccaud and Stéphanie Serra, Musée Jenisch, Vevey.

Private Life, Can Sep Simo, Ibiza.

Core Texts, 216 pages of interviews with Alfredo Aceto, Frédéric Gabioud, Nastassia Montel, Damián Navarro, Prokos and Baker Wardlaw. Edition of twenty-two, plus two.

Boom, ÉCAL, Renens. → Boom

Silicon Malley opens in Prilly, co-founded with Grégoire Bolay, Julien Fischer, Frédéric Gabioud and Paul Limoujoux; Baker Wardlaw joins subsequently. It runs until 2022. → Exhibition Making

CCI opens the space, with Thomas Baud, Giulia Essyad, Thomas Koenig, Thomas Vogel, Laura Zalewski and Guillaume de Nadaï. Robin Lebey, 1, and Myriam Stamoulis, Guitare, Tanpura et Tabla électronique, follow the same year. → CCI

2016

He joins the curatorial team at DOC!, Paris, an autonomous artist-run production space, and stays until 2018.

Cruising, curated by Elise Lammer, SALTS, Birsfelden.

Nominated for the Kiefer Hablitzel Prize, Swiss Art Awards, Basel. → Kiefer Hablitzel Prize

Accrochage Vaud, MCBA, Lausanne. → Accrochage Vaud

Tous les tableaux sont à l’envers, Circuit, Lausanne.

RÉ DO, curated by Silicon Malley, La Cabine, Clermont-Ferrand.

Les lèvres nues, a proposal by Noémie Vulpian and Jarry, DOC!, Paris. → Les lèvres nues

Frédéric Gabioud, Arthur Fouray, Baker Wardlaw, Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Geneva.

He curates Rob a Robe at DOC!, with Lauren Coullard, and Francis Baudevin, Guitars, DOC!, 16 December 2016 – 15 January 2017; at Silicon Malley, Nicolas Degrange, Suite, and Noémie Vulpian and César Chevalier, Cluster. → Rob a Robe

arter, to art, kunsten, artarre, Éditions Clinamen.

2017

Caravan, curated by Yasmin Afschar and Katrin Weilenmann, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau. His first solo exhibition in an institution. → Caravan

2080 (MMLXXX), ZQM, Berlin. Eleonora Castagna writes on it for Droste Effect Mag, 9 June 2017. → 2080

Andy (Pyrrole), 2017, enters the Aargauer Kunsthaus collection as a gift.

A Künstlergespräch at the Aargauer Kunsthaus on 24 October, with Philippe Decrauzat and Katrin Weilenmann. “An interface is like a wall between two parts, between two universes,” he says of the monochromes with an object inside them.

SCREEN, Tombolo Presses, Nevers. 104 pages, edition of 500, edited by Thierry Chancogne, ISBN 979-10-96155-05-7. Its text is an extract of the dialogue Alain Robbe-Grillet wrote for Alain Resnais’ L’Année dernière à Marienbad. → SCREEN

Greffes, Académie de France à Rome — Villa Medici, Rome. → Greffes

Ristretto, Le Marquis, Saint-Denis, 23–27 June 2017.

MONO, DOC!, Paris, 15–28 July 2017.

PRIX Novembre à Vitry, Galerie municipale Jean-Collet, Vitry-sur-Seine, 19 November – 17 December 2017.

Nouvelle Collection Paris, ENSBA, Paris; Jeudi x PRP and 3 years, Smart Move, with Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Geneva.

Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Geneva, begins to represent him. The gallery closes in 2022.

Assistant to Philippe Decrauzat, Paris.

He curates Christophe Lemaitre at DOC!, 25 November – 17 December 2017, under a running title — Manners Maketh Man, then Adversarial Objects, then Road Rage; Lauren Coullard, BREAK(FEAST), and Demelza Watts, free time, at Silicon Malley; Francesco Cagnin, So Leggere, and La Nuit juste avant les forêts, with Corentin Canesson, Lucas Erin and Eva Vaslamatzi, at DOC!. → Road Rage

He edits Francis Baudevin, The Guitar and Other Machines, DOC!, Paris.

Silicon Malley, Terrasse 2013–2017, mixed media, 300 × 300 × 125 cm, Art Genève.

2018

Ending Explained, organised by Will Benedict with the ECAL Master, DOC!, Paris, 17 March – 9 April 2018. → Ending Explained

Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Art Genève, Geneva.

He curates Pierre Joseph, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, DOC!, 8 September – 7 October 2018, with the support of Air de Paris; and On Italian museography… at Silicon Malley, with Koenraad Dedobbeleer and the EPFL Studio Master 1. → Pierre Joseph

Texts in Art Club, Académie de France à Rome — Villa Medici, and in Caravan, Aargauer Kunsthaus.

2018

Documentations begins, a participatory media outlet co-founded with Guillaume Maraud. It runs until 2019.

He is Studio Director for Matthew Lutz-Kinoy in Paris, from 2017 to 2019.

2019

He joins LUMA Arles as Archivist and Curator, in charge of the Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives.

1984 (feat. 1990), Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Geneva.

2020

Vues & Données, a colloquium at the École nationale supérieure de la photographie, Arles, 13–14 February 2020; he speaks on 14 February. The proceedings run to 226 pages, ISBN 979-10-91540-38-4.

He curates Matthieu Laurette, Demands & Supplies, Silicon Malley, Prilly. → Demands & Supplies

2021

Édouard Glissant — Où tous les imaginaires du monde peuvent se rencontrer et s’entendre, Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives, Chapter 1, LUMA Arles. Co-curated with Hans Ulrich Obrist, with Sylvie Séma-Glissant, Etel Adnan, agnès b., Julien Creuzet, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Manthia Diawara, Julie Mehretu, Philippe Parreno, Asad Raza, The Otolith Group and Koo Jeong A. → Chapter 1: Édouard Glissant

He writes rt4a, the longest of his texts on his own work.

2022

Etel Adnan — Le monde a besoin de proximité, pas de séparation. D’amour, pas de suspicion. D’un avenir commun, pas d’isolation., Chapter 2, LUMA Arles, with Etel Adnan and Simone Fattal. → Chapter 2: Etel Adnan

The first records appear under the name rt4a: Accelerate, Beware of Curator — Smithson Cultural Confinement, This Is Not a Tender World and Chiquito. → Music

Galerie Joy de Rouvre closes.

2023

Agnès Varda, Chapter 3, LUMA Arles. The Glissant chapter travels to LUMA Westbau, Zurich. → Chapter 3: Agnès Varda

arthurfouray.systems begins. Inspired by Duchamp’s La Boîte verte (1934) and built as an interface rather than a portfolio, it traces and retraces a single body of work — an active archive of everything produced since the age of one, alone or in groups, as artist or as curator. → Systems

A text in Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, les presses du réel, Dijon.

2024

Gustav Metzger — Chacun de nous, tous ensemble, Chapter 4, LUMA Arles. The Varda chapter travels to LUMA Westbau, Zurich. → Chapter 4: Gustav Metzger

Édouard Glissant, Dans un monde imprévisible, l’utopie est nécessaire, co-edited with Bernard Comment. Exhibition catalogue and compendium, Éditions du Seuil / LUMA.

P+ begins, an associative system of 620 physical and digital cards. → P+

A text in Matthieu Laurette : une monographie dérivée (1993–2023), MAC VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine.

2025

Maria Lassnig — Living with art stops one wilting!, Chapter 5, LUMA Arles. The Metzger chapter opens at LUMA Westbau, Zurich, 13 June – 7 September 2025. → Chapter 5: Maria Lassnig

Mémoire, a video work, goes into production.

Three albums and five singles appear as rt4a, among them godart, Unreleased 2008–2014, drawn from six years of unreleased material, and two versions of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Op. 35. → Music

2026

Zaha Hadid — I Think There Should Be No End to Experimentation, Chapter 6, LUMA Arles, from 1 May 2026. Artistic direction by Vassilis Oikonomopoulos; co-curated with Hans Ulrich Obrist in close collaboration with the Zaha Hadid Foundation. → Chapter 6: Zaha Hadid

The Lassnig chapter opens at LUMA Westbau, Zurich, 13 June – 20 December 2026. → Lassnig, LUMA Westbau

A new series of canvases begins — charcoal, pencil and acrylic on cotton — “seeking to simplify my relationship with visual production.”