The exhibition of Guillaume Bresson’s works in the Africa Rooms of the Château de Versailles confronts and questions the visitor on the notion of staging violence in painting. The Africa Rooms house historical paintings by Horace Vernet that depict North African colonial conquests in the 1830s and 1840s. By placing Bresson’s resolutely contemporary paintings in this room the exhibition creates a triangle between the past, present and audience, asking us to consider our own bodies and place in society. 

Guillaume Bresson’s preparatory work begins in photography sessions with models in his studio, who pose and perform theatrical movements reminiscent of Baroque painting. Through a montage process, the artist isolates and detaches the bodies before rearranging them into groups, constructing paintings in which body language plays a central role in creating the narrative.