Isabelle Hayeur featured in Black Sun – Oil and Contemporary Art

Villa Medici

Isabelle Hayeur, Death in absentia 06 (2011) 102 x 183 cm, from the Underworlds / Troubled Waters series

Black Sun – Oil and Contemporary Art

Curated by Zamân Books & Curating (Morad Montazami, Madeleine de Colnet) and Caroline Courrioux
October 9, 2026 – January 18, 2027
Opening Reception: October 8, 2026, 6pm
Villa Medici, Rome
villamedici.it/en/programme/black-sun

Artists: Latif Al Ani, Monira Al Qadiri, Jananne Al-Ani, Ana Alenso, Ismaïl Bahri, Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck, Bernardo Bertolucci, Rossella Biscotti, BP, Alberto Burri, Chloe Dewe Mathews, Aref El Rayess, Fouad Elkhoury, Joanne Farchakh-Bajjaly, Media Farzin, Mehdi Ghadyanloo, Lungiswa Gqunta, Robert Gschwantner, Jacqueline Hassink, Isabelle Hayeur, Romuald Hazoumè, Michael Hirschbichler, Alexandre Hogue, Nancy Holt, Jumana Manna, Alessandro Marchi, Anita Molinero, Anahita Norouzi, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Shirin Sabahi, Behjat Sad, Latifa Saeed, Zina Saro-Wiwa, Jessica Segall, Allan Sekula, Robert Smithson, Thu-Van Tran, Jala Wahid, Hani Zurob

Following Stone Stories, inspired by Roger Caillois, and The Song of the Sirens, devoted to water, this new exhibition at Villa Medici explores oil as both a material resource and a powerful force shaping contemporary art, politics, economies, landscapes, and collective imaginaries.

Bringing together works that examine extraction, infrastructure, geopolitical power, and climate catastrophe, the exhibition traces a visual and critical history of “petromodernity.” From refineries, pipelines, and offshore platforms to oil crises and environmental disasters, the participating artists reveal how oil has structured relations between the Global North and South, while exploring how fossil-fuel infrastructures are concealed, aestheticized, or challenged. Artistic and activist practices enter into dialogue to confront what Andreas Malm has called “fossil imperialism” and to imagine a post-oil world.

Isabelle Hayeur, Death in absentia 01 (2011) 108 x 183 cm, from the Underworlds / Troubled Waters series

The exhibition grew out of Morad Montazami’s research on “petromodernities,” developed during his residency at Villa Medici in 2023–2024, and continues the institution’s long-standing dialogue with its former residents. It is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by Zamân Books and Villa Medici.

In Black Sun – Oil and Contemporary Art, Isabelle Hayeur presents photographs from her ongoing underwater photography project, initiated in 2008. The works depict the partially submerged wrecks of ferries, barges, fishing boats, and steam tugs abandoned in the Staten Island boat graveyard, one of the largest sites of its kind in the United States. Located along the Arthur Kill, an inlet lined with refineries and crossed by oil tankers, this uncanny and desolate landscape forms part of New Jersey’s Chemical Coast. Beneath the decaying vessels and contaminated shores lies an environment once composed of salt marshes, forests, and freshwater wetlands. Through these images, the boat graveyard becomes a space where industrial history, ecological degradation, and the enduring presence of oil converge.

Isabelle Hayeur, Adrift (2019) experimental video art, HD, stereo sound, Canada / United States

Isabelle Hayeur is a Canadian photographer and video artist whose practice is rooted in ecological and socially engaged approaches. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the National Gallery of Canada, MASS MoCA, the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, and the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris. She has received the Prefix Prize (2025), the Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid-Career Award (2021), and the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography (2019), and was a finalist for the Scotiabank Photography Award (2015). Her work is represented in public collections such as those of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Fonds national d’art contemporain in Paris.
isabelle-hayeur.com

Morad Montazami and Madeleine de Colnet — Zamân Books & Curating
Zamân Books & Curating is an editorial and curatorial platform specializing in postcolonial art histories across the Arab, African, and Asian worlds. Its recent projects include Casablanca Art School and Présences arabes: Art moderne et décolonisation, Paris 1908–1988. Montazami and de Colnet are currently members of the curatorial team for the 2026 Dakar Biennale.

Caroline Courrioux
Since 2021, Caroline Courrioux has served as Head of Exhibitions and Programming at Villa Medici. Her work focuses on contemporary art, ecofeminism, and political imaginaries. In 2024, she curated The Song of the Sirens: Water as Told by Artists at Villa Medici.

Villa Medici
Founded in 1666, the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medeci is dedicated to supporting artists, authors, and researchers in residence. It also presents exhibitions and a multidisciplinary cultural programme within its historic site in Rome.

Villa Médicis – Académie de France à Rome
French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici
Viale della Trinità dei Monti, 1
00187 Rome, Italy
villamedici.it
standard@villamedici.it
+39 06 676 1200

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Accessibility:
10am – 7pm daily, last admission at 6:30pm
Closed on Tuesdays

Isabelle Hayeur would like to thank Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec