Sonia Gomes: Wild Heart, the textile-sculpture exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo

Textiles swell with volume in Cœur sauvage, Sonia Gomes's exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris's 16th arrondissement, running from October 21, 2026 to February 14, 2027. The Brazilian artist gathers salvaged materials to fashion sculptures and installations with an organic feel. From these already-used substances, she explores family histories, cultural legacies, and the possibility of transforming what is handed to us.

Her starting point is often a piece of fabric found or donated. She adds cords, embroidery, wood, or other salvaged objects. Sonia Gomes knots, twists, sews, and combines these elements. The marks of their previous lives are part of the work, just as much as their textures and colors.

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Hung on the walls, suspended, or placed on the floor, the works invite the eye to engage at different heights. Some forms evoke living organisms in the process of development. The rouge, regularly used by the artist, links several pieces in the exhibition. These constructions reveal how gestures akin to sewing and assembling can become tools of sculpture.

Born in 1948 in Caetanópolis, Sonia Gomes only turns to making art in her forties, after an initial career as a lawyer. Her work draws on Afro-Brazilian savoir-faire and probes the legacies of colonization, race and gender relations, as well as the transmission of culture. The exhibition, organized by Daria de Beauvais with Octavienne Denancy and Inès Fodil, places at the center the dialogue between material and history.

A garment tucked away in a wardrobe can matter more than many precious objects. These works also open up this intimate avenue: which fabrics would we keep to tell the story of someone we hold dear?

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