Inkarna: our photos from Yosra Mojtahedi's exhibition at Maubuisson Abbey

When the body becomes nature and nature becomes body... In Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, in the Val-d’Oise, the Abbaye de Maubuisson hosts from 12 April to 30 August 2026 Inkarna, les métamorphoses du sacré, a contemporary art exhibition conceived by Yosra Mojtahedi in dialogue with Elsa Guillaume and Magdalena Abakanowicz. Presented in this former Cistercian abbey turned contemporary art center, the parcours asks questions about the links between the sacred, the body, matter and the metamorphoses of living beings.

Second chapter of the triptych Metamorphoses of the Sacred (following the Mandorla exhibition), this installment explores how the sacred is evolving in contemporary art practices. It navigates the spectrum from memory of places and symbolic heritage to organic forms, technological innovations, and sensory experiences. Co-curated by Marie Ménestrier and Emmanuel Reiatua Cuisinier, Inkarna offers a journey tailored to the abbey, where Persian mythology, sculptural installations, textile art, hybrid figures, and reflections on life itself come together in a curated present-day artistic dialogue.

Inkarna, an exhibition exploring bodies, matter and hybrid forms

With Inkarna, Yosra Mojtahedi is creating an exhibition specially designed for the spaces of Maubuisson, directly inspired by the abbey’s architecture and its spiritual history. Born in Tehran in 1986 and educated at the Fresnoy, the artist works at the intersection of contemporary art, science, and technology. She has a particular focus on soft robotics, organic forms, and the boundaries between the living and the non-living.

Here, visitors walk through a space dominated by dark tones, dense textures, and hybrid forms. Black, a striking presence throughout, isn’t just used as a visual effect; it functions as a material in its own right—both enveloping and silent, yet active. The route features works such as Exode, which explores the intersection of religious storytelling, female experience, and post-apocalyptic scenes; Anahithanor, a piece inspired by a mythological Persian figure of a fountain-bodied form, blending myth and alchemical imagery; Zhinar, a large-scale sculpture connected to women’s struggles; and L’Érosarbénus, an installation combining silicone, ceramics, programming, and motion. In this environment, the body becomes a landscape, a machine, a vessel of memory, or a surface of resistance—never confined to a single interpretation.

Two guest artists invited to broaden the conversation about the living world

The exhibition is also gaining depth thanks to the contributions of Elsa Guillaume and Magdalena Abakanowicz, whose works continue to explore the themes of transformation and evolution in the living world. With Triton IX, Elsa Guillaume draws on her expertise in marine environments and ceramics to create amphibious forms—shaped by water, earth, and the origins of life itself. Her work adds a more elemental and aquatic dimension to the exhibition, emphasizing the circulation of matter, transitions between states, and a constant awareness of the dynamic nature of life.

• To be read
• Maubuisson Abbey, a royal abbey turned contemporary art center in Val d'Oise (95)
• Mandorla, the contemporary exhibition to discover at the Abbaye de Maubuisson
• Best bets for the week of October 12–18, 2026 in Paris and Île-de-France

In contrast, L’Ange noir by Magdalena Abakanowicz introduces a different depth, drawing on organic fibers, silhouettes, and the memory of the human form. A key figure in 20th-century textile sculpture, the Polish artist explores themes of fragility, repetition, and human presence through a piece that seems to preserve the echoes of an ancient tension between the individual and the collective. Together at Maubuisson, these works create a compelling dialogue around flow, textures, and transformation—while honoring the unique language of each artist’s approach.

Our take on the Inkarna exhibition at Maubuisson Abbey:

We caught a preview of the show before it opened, and Yosra Mojtahedi’s dark universe hits hard and direct. The spaces allow light to carve through, highlighting an artist who also leans into the luminous side of her work.

There are visual installations, but also soundscapes—accompanied by a cello score from Timothée Couteau—that immerse visitors in an environment where nature becomes a body and the body becomes nature, expressed through soft earth, natural hair, and other materials. These living installations treat water as a life cycle, a constant rebirth. It’s an interior, timeless journey that you inhabit.

Our recommendations:

The show unfolds across four ground-floor rooms, with easy access for people with reduced mobility, though some spaces are fairly narrow and some doors are small. The rooms can be quite dim, depending on the time of day you visit—the Abbey uses light theatrically to highlight its exhibitions. So this is for a discerning audience.

The public opening reception is scheduled for Saturday, April 11, 2026, at 3 p.m. It will feature a sound performance by Timothée Couteau and Yosra Mojtahedi, conceived as an electro-acoustic dialogue exploring the universe of the exhibition. In the galleries of Maubuisson, Inkarna offers a glimpse into new ways of contemplating life, matter, and what still eludes purely visual understanding today.

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