I believe objects are receptacles, witnesses of life, and my work is to make these objects emit their contained energy, without ever confining them
— David Douard
David Douard (b. 1983, Perpignan) lives and works in Paris. His practice is grounded in language, which he treats as a mutable, circulating material. Drawing from literary, poetic, and vernacular sources—often shaped by the conditions of digital culture—Douard transforms text into sculptural and spatial forms. Language enters his work as something unstable and embodied, reconfiguring exhibition space as a hybrid, collective environment marked by contamination, fragmentation, and affect.
Working primarily with sculpture and installation, and incorporating painting, text, and heterogeneous materials, Douard produces environments that appear provisional, damaged, or infected. His works often resemble prosthetic structures or compromised bodies, where surfaces carry traces of writing, erosion, and interruption. Rather than representing digital culture, his practice registers its psychological and linguistic effects, treating the digital as an internalized condition rather than a visible system.
Emerging from a generation shaped by networked communication, Douard is frequently positioned adjacent to post-digital practice, while remaining distinct from its technological or image-based tendencies. His work aligns him with artists such as Ed Atkins, Cécile B. Evans, Helen Marten, and James Richards, yet maintains a resolutely sculptural and literary orientation.
Douard graduated from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2011 and has taught at the École nationale supérieure d’arts de Paris-Cergy since 2022. His work has been presented internationally at institutions including UCCA Dune Art Museum, Qinhuangdao; Serralves Museum, Porto; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Fridericianum, Kassel; Sculpture Center, New York; and Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, and has featured in major biennials such as the Lyon, Taipei, Gwangju, and Belgrade Biennials. He was a fellow at the French Academy in Rome, Villa Medici (2017–18), and received the Fondazione Ettore Fico Prize in 2017. His works are held in prominent public and private collections, including ICA Miami; Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai; Collection Pinault, Paris; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; and CNAP, Paris.