I Am the Phantom of My Own Opera

At the Raw Edges of Art

The theme of self-narrative, at the core of this exhibition, highlights the paradox of an identity that is difficult to describe or define objectively, since one’s innermost self is undoubtedly the most difficult thing to articulate. The concept of storytelling seems essential, and demonstrates that identity is constructed, accumulative, and evolving in response to external elements that create connections, relationships, and stories.

The title comes from a 1983 song by Daniel Johnston (1961–2019). This unclassifiable artist, whose prolific musical work - described as “lo-fi”- influenced numerous bands of the 1990s and 2000s, expresses this ambiguity of being simultaneously the actor, the spectator, and the builder of one’s own life. To be the phantom of one’s own opera is to haunt a fabricated narrative of the self: an inner theater where identity, memory, desire, and disappearance coexist without ever being resolved.

The works brought together in this exhibition are not autobiographical fragments in the traditional sense, but rather psychological maps, snapshots of obsessive systems, repetitive writing, hallucinatory visions, and devices that situate a presence often out of step with the world. The narrative of the self thus emerges as a paradoxical practice: at once affirmation and dissolution, construction and overflow.

At the Raw Edges of Art situates the exhibition in a zone of friction and indeterminacy: a space where the boundaries between Raw Art, expressive modernity, and contemporary creation become porous. This indeterminacy allows us to explore, without hierarchy or labels, creation as it emerges uncompromisingly in intimate, precarious, and often unspectacular territories.

The artists brought together here - whether associated with raw, self-taught, modern, or contemporary art - share a common need: to produce forms capable of expressing an irreducible inner experience. The concept of Art Brut, as defined in the 1950s by Jean Dubuffet, cannot be applied in the same way to today’s artists. The widespread dissemination of images has reshaped the conditions of all unique creative expression, blurring the boundaries that once separated individual practice from shared culture.

Michel Thévoz himself questions the relevance of this category in his recent book on “refreshed raw art” (L’Art brut ressourcé), emphasizing the notion of collectives as hubs for the renewal of artistic practice outside established circuits.

Today, the focus is less on highlighting an external stance toward the system and more on affirming the intrinsic instability of the artistic act, which struggles to find a place in a society that favors closed and hierarchical structures. The exhibition thus offers viewers not a psychological interpretation of the subject, but a journey through its many forms, where testimonies, fictions, fissures and metamorphoses coexist.

Curators

Caroline Chabrand et Pauline Faure, curatrices MO.CO.  
Reno Leplat-Torti, commissaire indépendant  
Avec Julie Chateignon, attachée de conservation 
Deniz Yoruç, assistante d’exposition MO.CO.

Under the artistic direction of Numa Hambursin CEO of MO.CO.

Artists

Aysha E ARAR (1993, Jaljulia), Zebedee ARMSTRONG (1911 - 1993, USA), Yüksel ARSLAN (1933, TUR – 2017,FR), Marcel BASCOULARD (1913 - 1978, FR), Anya BEYLAT-GIUNTA (1975, RU), Philip BERG (1996, FR), Marie BODSON (1992, BE), Louise BOURGEOIS (1911, FR – 2010, USA), Charles BOUSSION (1925-2021, FR), Abel BURGER (1982, FR), Miriam CAHN (1949, CH), André CERVERA (1962, FR), Virginia CHIHOTA (1983,ZIM), Aloïse CORBAZ (1886 - 1964, CH), CREATIVE GROWTH (collectif, USA), Roberto CUOGHI (1973, IT), Henry DARGER (1892 - 1973, USA), Agathe DAVID (1985, FR), Delphine DÉNÉRÉAZ (1989, FR), Erik DIETMAN (1937, SU - 2002, FR), Nathalie DJURBERG et Hans BERG (1978, SU), Jose Manuel EGEA (1988, ES), Tracey EMIN (1963, GB), Gabriel EVRARD (1991, BE), Adrien FREGOSI (1980 - 2024, FR), Irène GÉRARD (1958, BE), Madge GILL (1882 – 1961, GB), Lee GODIE (1908 – 1994, USA), Annabelle GUETATRA (1985, BE), Marian HENEL (1926 – 1993, PL), Josef HOFER (1945, AUT), Renaud JEREZ (1982, FR), Daniel JOHNSTON (1961 – 2019, USA), Davood KOOCHAKI (1939 – 2020, IRAN), Nikifor KRYNICKI (1895 – 1968, PL), Gérard LATTIER (1937, FR), Jean LECLERCQ (1951, BE), Sarah LEE (1980, IR), Pascal LEYDER (1988, BE), Christian LHOPITAL (1953, FR), Alexandre LOBANOV (1924 – 2003, RU), Frédérique LOUTZ (1974, FR), David LYNCH (1946-2025, USA), Tomasz MACHCIŃSKI (1942-2022, PL), Dwight MACKINTOSH (1906 - 1999, USA), Philippe MARIEN (1987, BEL), Paul MC CARTHY (1945, USA), Théo MERCIER (1984, FR), Annette MESSAGER (1943, FR), Gaston MINEAU (FR), Donald MITCHELL (1951, USA), Jacob MORF (1922 – 2002, CH), Armineh NEGAHDARI (1994, IRAN), Mariléna PELOSI (1957, BRE), Luboš PLNÝ (1961, TCH), Antoine RABANY (1844 – 1919, FR), Josef Karl RADLER (1844 - 1917, TCH), Arnulf RAINER (1929 - 2025, AUT), Royal ROBERTSON (1930-1997, USA), Fabienne ROUSSEAU (FR), LA S GRAND ATELIER (collectif, BE), Anne-Marie SCHNEIDER (1962, FR), Ceija STOJKA (1933 – 2013, AUT), Dominique THEATE (1968, BE), URUK (Anne-Lise COSTE, 1973, FR), Adolf WÖLFLI (1894 – 1930, SUI), Rose WYLIE (1943, GB).