In a year that signals a departure from tradition, the prestigious Marcel Duchamp Prize has unveiled its four nominees for its 25th Edition after a long, meticulous process by the selection committee composed of ADIAF collectors. This year also marks a significant shift in the prize’s storied history.
Image courtesy of The Marcel Duchamp Prize
For the first time in 24 years, the exhibition will move from its iconic home at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in the Centre Pompidou, as the institution undergoes extensive renovations.
The Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris will now host the Marcel Duchamp Prize exhibitions from 2025 to 2029, thanks to a landmark partnership between the ADIAF, the Centre Pompidou, and Paris Musées. This new chapter for the prize begins with the 2025 nominees’ exhibition, which will run from 26 September 2025 to 22 February 2026. As one of the art’s most noteworthy accolades, the Marcel Duchamp Prize continues to champion artistic innovation, now within a fresh and equally respected venue.
I look forward to seeing you at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris on Thursday, 23 October 2025, during Paris Art Week, for the announcement of the winner, who will be chosen by an international jury composed of directors of art institutions, collectors and, as last year, two artists.
Claude Bonnin, President of ADIAF
Founded in partnership with the Centre Pompidou and carrying an endowment of €90,000, The Marcel Duchamp Prize has cemented its reputation as one of the most prestigious accolades in the art world. Since its inception in 2000, the prize has honoured artists who have become significant figures in the international art scene.
More than a recognition of excellence, The Marcel Duchamp Prize represents a commitment to nurturing creative expression. Under the stewardship of the ADIAF, the Marcel Duchamp Prize has organised an impressive 50 exhibitions in France, showcasing both nominees alongside approximately 20 international exhibitions supported by the Institut Français.
In addition, the ADIAF provides residency opportunities for nominated artists. These partnerships include collaborations with Sèvres – Manufacture and National Museums in France and the Villa Albertine in the United States, offering artists environments to explore and expand their creative practices.
The artists of the 25th Marcel Duchamp Prize
Bianca BONDI
Born in 1986 in Johannesburg (South Africa)
Bianca Bondi, born in 1986 in Johannesburg, South Africa, lives and works in Paris. The artist is represented by Galerie Mor Charpentier (Paris). Bianca Bondi’s multidisciplinary practice focuses on elevating and activating everyday objects through the use of salt water and chemical chain reactions. She selects materials for their potential to mutate and for their intrinsic and symbolic
properties, aiming to create sensory experiences that go beyond the visual.
Her work celebrates the life of matter, emphasizing interconnectedness, transience, and the
cycles of life and death. Passionate about ecology and the occult, Bianca Bondi combines these fields in works of a transformative nature in which the aura of objects plays a central role. Often in situ, her poetic installations are intimately linked to the spaces they inhabit.
Courtesy of Eva Nielssen et de la galerie Peter Kilchmann
Eva NIELSEN
Born in 1983 in Les Lilas (France)
Eva Nielsen, born in 1983 in Les Lilas, lives and works in Paris. She graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2009, and also studied at Central Saint Martins (London) and the Sorbonne (Paris). Eva Nielsen is currently represented by Galerie Peter Kilchmann (Paris / Zurich) and The Pill gallery (Paris / Istanbul).
Renowned for her hybrid paintings, Eva Nielsen draws on materials such as latex, leather, silk, and silkscreen to introduce a complex and unexpected dimension to her singular pictorial compositions. Her work invites viewers to delve into the landscapes she navigates, unfolding through successive and immersive layers. As a painter, photographer, and visual artist, she superimposes these stages to cast doubt on the very process of the making of the artwork.
Her work has been exhibited in major institutions: Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland; Mac/Val, France; LACE, Los Angeles; Plataforma Revolver, Portugal; BNKR, Munich; Perm Museum, Russia; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark and Palais Pisztory, Bratislava, among others.
© A. Boissaye – studio CuiCui
Lionel SABATTÉ
Born in 1975 in Toulouse (France)
Born in Toulouse in 1975, Lionel Sabatté graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2003. He currently lives and works in Paris and Los Angeles and is represented by Galerie Ceysson & Bénétière (Paris, New York, Tokyo, Koerich, Lyon, Geneva, Saint-Etienne, Panéry).
Working across painting, drawing and sculpture, Lionel Sabatté strives to create a continuous dialogue between all his works. His work revolves around the living world and the transformation of matter over time. For several years now, the artist has been collecting materials that bear the imprint of past experiences: dust, ash, coal, dead skin, tree stumps, and more.
These elements are combined in unexpected ways, resulting in works that carry both delicacy and a “disturbing strangeness”. Lionel Sabbaté brings to life to a hybrid bestiary where creatures from the abyssal depths coexist with small birds from oxidized islands, bears, wolves, emus, owls and unicorns… His research into the mineral and the animal worlds gives rise to poetic, sensitive and unsettling creation that contribute to a global reflection on our condition and the
place we occupy in our environment.
Credit Margot Montigny
XIE Lei
Born in 1983 in China
Xie Lei has lived and worked in Paris since 2006. He is represented by Galerie Semiose (Paris) and is a graduate of CAFA in Beijing and ENSBA in Paris. As a painter, Xie Lei explores a language that conveys his sensitive universe and provides a space for experimentation, that explores the specificity of painting as a medium in the contemporary world. While grounded in reality, his work ventures into ambiguous, uncertain worlds, transformed by his imagination.
Most of his paintings evoke troubled or unsettling situations, subtly connected to literary and
cinematographic memories or drawn from the profound depths of emotion. His art focuses on the complexity of events and situations, and above all on their inherent ambiguities and tensions.
Xie Lei’s practice offers a different perception of time, encouraging the viewers to slow down their gaze and escape the intoxicating rush of acceleration and immediacy. In his most recent works, Xie Lei explores an intermediary world —between sleep and death, torture and eroticism. These pieces are marked by dark tones that transform however into luminous and powerful hues.
The Jury for the Marcel Duchamp Prize 2025
- Xavier Rey: Director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, and Chairman of the Jury.
- Claude Bonnin: Collector and President of ADIAF.
- Akemi Shiraha: Representative of the Marcel Duchamp Association.
- Laurent Dumas: Chairman of the Board of Directors of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris.
- Fabrice Hergott: Director of the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.
- Ann Veronica Janssens: Renowned artist (Belgium/United Kingdom).
- Yan Pei-Ming: Acclaimed artist (China/France).
- Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo: Influential collector (Italy).
- Manuel Segade: Director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Spain).
- Aurélie Voltz: Director of the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Saint-Étienne Métropole.
The Marcel Duchamp Prize 2025: Key Dates
- Thursday, January 9, 2025: The selection committee convenes, and the names of the nominated artists are officially announced.
- Thursday, September 25, 2025: Opening of the exhibition featuring the nominated artists at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.
- Exhibition Duration:
From Friday, September 26, 2025, to Sunday, February 22, 2026, visitors can experience the works of the nominated artists.
Curators: Jean-Pierre Criqui, renowned art historian, critic, and curator for contemporary collections at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, and Julia Garimorth, Chief Curator for contemporary collections at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. - Thursday, October 23, 2025: The winning artist of the Marcel Duchamp Prize 2025 is announced.
©2025 The Marcel Duchamp Prize
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