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| Jacquelin Loni | |
|---|---|
| Name | Jacquelin Loni |
| Birth date | 1978 |
| Birth place | Marseille, France |
| Occupation | Writer, Critic, Curator |
| Nationality | French |
| Notable works | Le Portique des Ombres; Mosaic of Cities |
| Awards | Prix Médicis; Turner Prize (nominee) |
Jacquelin Loni is a contemporary French writer, critic, and curator known for intermedial essays and site-specific installations that bridge urban studies, visual arts, and literary theory. Active since the early 2000s, Loni has engaged with institutions, festivals, and universities across Europe and North America, contributing to debates in contemporary art, architecture, and cultural heritage.
Born in Marseille, Loni grew up amid the port's maritime heritage and the Provence cultural scene, attending Lycée Thiers before studying literature and visual culture at Université Aix-Marseille and École des Beaux-Arts de Marseille. Loni completed postgraduate research at École Normale Supérieure and later undertook fellowships at Columbia University and the Courtauld Institute of Art, engaging with faculty associated with Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Guy Debord, Gilles Deleuze, Bruno Latour, Jean Baudrillard, Umberto Eco and research centers such as the Centre Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art. Influenced by exchanges with curators and scholars linked to Documenta, Venice Biennale, Serpentine Galleries, Tate Modern, and the Musée d'Orsay, Loni developed an interdisciplinary approach combining archival methods and public practice.
Loni began publishing essays and reviews in journals affiliated with Le Monde, Artforum, Frieze, The Guardian, Les Inrockuptibles, and The New York Times arts pages, while curating exhibitions at venues including the Palais de Tokyo, MACBA, Kunsthalle Zürich, Hamburger Bahnhof, Fondazione Prada, and the Institut du Monde Arabe. Loni has lectured at institutions such as Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, New York University, Harvard University, University of Oxford, and the University of Toronto, and collaborated with museums like the Getty Research Institute, Tate Britain, and the Smithsonian Institution. Projects often intersected with urban policy partners such as European Commission cultural programs, the City of Marseille cultural office, and UNESCO heritage initiatives.
Loni's major books include Le Portique des Ombres, Mosaic of Cities, and The Archive of Passing, which examine spatial narratives, archives, and the politics of visibility through case studies on sites such as Marseille, Naples, Barcelona, London, New York City, Berlin, Istanbul, and Aleppo. Curatorial projects like "Silent Frontiers" and "Maps of Return" staged interventions at Venice Biennale, Documenta 13, and the São Paulo Art Biennial, combining works by artists including Giorgio de Chirico, Pablo Picasso, Marina Abramović, Ai Weiwei, Anselm Kiefer, Sophie Calle, Lawrence Weiner, Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Tino Sehgal, and Yayoi Kusama. Loni's essays have been anthologized alongside writings by Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, John Berger, Rosalind Krauss, Hal Foster, Benedict Anderson, and Edward Said.
Loni's prose blends critical theory, archival description, and poetic observation, drawing on influences from Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze while reflecting curatorial precedents set by Harun Farocki, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nathalie de Vries, and Louise Bourgeois. The style is noted for intertextual citations and cartographic metaphors that reference works by Italo Calvino, Georges Perec, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, T.S. Eliot, and Fernando Pessoa, and for methodological affinities with archival projects associated with The Archive of the Now and The Getty Provenance Index.
Loni received the Prix Médicis for Le Portique des Ombres, was shortlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award, nominated for the Turner Prize for a curatorial program, and awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the British Academy, the DAAD, and the Fondation Cartier. Loni's exhibitions received critical acclaim in outlets such as The New Yorker, Le Figaro, El País, and Der Spiegel, and grants from the European Cultural Foundation and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
Loni lives between Marseille and London and maintains residences that serve as research spaces in both cities. Loni has collaborated closely with partners from institutions including the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, the Royal College of Art, and the Whitney Museum, and participates in networks such as Artists Space, Cultural Institute of Chicago, and Biennale College. Loni is multilingual and involved in mentoring programs at Goldsmiths, University of London and Sciences Po.
Loni's work influenced contemporary curatorial practice by foregrounding site-specific archives, participatory urban narratives, and cross-disciplinary pedagogy; peers link this impact to shifts in programming at institutions such as the Palais de Tokyo, Tate Modern, MoMA PS1, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Loni's methods are cited in doctoral research across programs at Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, King's College London, and Universität der Künste Berlin, and in policy documents from cultural bodies like the Council of Europe and UN-Habitat on heritage-led urban regeneration.
Category:French writers Category:Contemporary curators