Nice will welcome a compelling new chapter in its contemporary art scene this autumn with Haut bas fragile, a new exhibition presented by NEO art & culture lab x VogelART and curated by artist and curator Thomas Zitzwitz.
Running from September 24 to October 11, 2026, the exhibition brings together an impressive group of international artists whose work explores some of the most elusive and universal conditions of contemporary life: fragility, vulnerability, transformation and resilience.
Following his previous exhibitions, Tender is the Night and Sympathetic Ink, Zitzwitz continues to examine contemporary artistic practices through exhibitions that deliberately resist easy categorisation. Rather than presenting a single narrative, Haut bas fragile creates a space where different artistic voices, mediums and perspectives can exist in tension with one another.
The title itself is borrowed from Jacques Rivette’s 1995 film Haut bas fragile, a work known for its playful, open-ended narrative and its fascination with what remains unresolved, suspended or unfinished. That sensibility becomes an important thread running through the exhibition.
High, low, fragile.
The three words suggest not only emotional states but also the contradictions of contemporary existence. They describe moments of vulnerability and strength, certainty and doubt, intimacy and exposure. In a world increasingly defined by instability and rapid transformation, fragility is no longer simply something to be overcome. It can also become a condition through which we understand ourselves, our relationships and the societies around us.
The exhibition therefore brings together works that question what happens when stability gives way to uncertainty, when something familiar is transformed, or when vulnerability becomes a source of resilience.
Across a diverse range of media and artistic approaches, Haut bas fragile creates a dialogue between lightness and gravity, intimacy and public space, stability and uncertainty. Rather than prescribing a particular interpretation, the exhibition invites visitors to move through these contrasts and construct their own understanding of what is fragile, unfinished or in transition.
That openness is particularly appropriate for an exhibition in Nice, a city whose artistic identity has long been shaped by encounters between different cultures, movements and generations.
A Curator with Deep Roots on the Côte d’Azur
For Thomas Zitzwitz, the exhibition also represents something of a homecoming.
An artist as well as an experienced curator, Zitzwitz has a longstanding personal connection to Nice and the Côte d’Azur. He grew up in Èze, just outside Nice, and attended school in the region.
That connection gives his work at NEO an additional dimension. His relationship with the Côte d’Azur is not simply that of an outside curator arriving to stage an exhibition in an attractive Mediterranean city. It is rooted in personal experience and a longstanding familiarity with the region and its creative environment.
His own experience as an artist also informs the way he approaches exhibitions. Rather than treating artworks as isolated objects, Zitzwitz brings together artists through encounters, relationships and an understanding of the creative processes behind their work.
The result is an exhibition conceived less as a conventional collection of individual works and more as a conversation between artistic positions.
An Exceptionally International Line-up
The exhibition features an extensive roster of artists from different generations and artistic backgrounds, including:
Adriane Wachholz, Alicja Kwade, André Wendland, Aneta Kajzer, Bertille Bak, Camille Henrot, Carsten Höller, Christian August, Cosimo Casoni, Frédéric Weigel, Gregor Hildebrandt, Ida Ekblad, Isa Melsheimer, Jean Bedez, Jenny Brosinski, Joan Jonas, Johannes Daniel, Kenny Schachter, Kristian Touborg, Lars Breuer, Lou Ros, Lucie Antoinette, Marie Bovo, Norbert Bisky, Pablo Tomek, Philip Grözinger, Sophie Calle, Thomas Zitzwitz, Ugo Rondinone, Xiyao Wang and Yorgos Stamkopoulos.
The breadth of the participating artists is one of the exhibition’s most intriguing elements. Their differing practices and perspectives create precisely the kind of friction that Haut bas fragile seeks to explore.
Rather than offering a uniform aesthetic, the exhibition promises a polyphonic experience, where visitors can encounter different interpretations of vulnerability, change and resilience.
Opening Night and Special Performance
The exhibition officially opens with its vernissage on Thursday, September 24, from 6pm to 9pm.
The programme will also include a special performance by Frédéric Weigel on Sunday, October 4 at 7pm, adding another dimension to an exhibition already concerned with movement, transformation and the relationship between the unfinished and the complete.
Haut bas fragile will remain open from September 24 through October 11, Wednesday to Sunday from 2pm.
For Nice, the exhibition represents another welcome reminder that the city’s contemporary art scene extends well beyond its established museums and institutions. With an international group of artists, a curator with genuine ties to the region and a concept rooted in some of the most relevant questions of contemporary life, Haut bas fragile promises to be an exhibition that rewards curiosity rather than passive observation.
In the end, perhaps that is precisely what fragility demands: not certainty, but attention.
And in a city as layered, contradictory and perpetually evolving as Nice, an exhibition devoted to the fragile and unfinished feels particularly at home.
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