Heartfelt tributes continue to pour in online, as news spreads of the death of the highly esteemed French curator, Vincent Honoré, yesterday (November 30). He was 48.

“It’s with infinite sadness that MO.CO is announcing the sudden death of Vincent Honoré,” reads a statement from MO.CO Montepellier, where he worked as head of exhibitions. “Today we have lost an extraordinary and inspiring colleague who will leave an immense void in our community. His legacy will live on through all the exhibitions he curated, like the current one by Huma Bhabha, and the young artists he mentored and supported.”

Honoré was known for uplifting the lives of the artists and other cultural workers whom he enthusiastically supported throughout his career. The cause of death was suicide, according to French news reports.

“A mentor and a friend gone too soon…I will never forget your trust and support,” wrote Cédric Fauq, chief curator at Capc, Bordeaux’s contemporary art museum, in an Instagram post. “There is not a single project I do without thinking about your outlook on art and artists…Thinking about all the lives you’ve changed today. You certainly changed mine,” he added.

Before joining MO.CO, Honoré was a curator at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, where he worked from 2001-2004, and later at the Tate Modern. He was the founding director and chief curator of David Robert Art Foundation (DRAF) in London, which he developed as a research, production, and performance center, and worked as senior curator at the Hayward Gallery. Special projects included the 13^th edition of the Baltic Triennial and the Kosovo pavilion at the 58^th Venice Biennale, which addressed themes of war and memory, featuring the artist Albban Muja.

Honoré also wrote art criticism, frequently contributing to Mousse magazine, and Cura, among other publications. He founded “Drawing Room Confessions,” a series of books where each edition focused on the works of a single artist, the likes of which included Miriam Cahn and David Lamelas.

His exhibitions were critically acclaimed and full of the unexpected. He questioned issues such as splintered identities, belonging, class, gender, and colonialism. The seminal, “DRAG: Self-Portrait and Body Politics,” at the Hayward Gallery in 2018, included works by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, and Sin Wai Kin. “Kiss My Genders,” in 2019, also at Hayward, was called a “sinful, sensational walk on the wild side” by the Guardian, including works by Juliana Huxtable, Kent Monkman, Catherine Opie.

Honoré has also championed the works of artists such as Neïl Beloufa, Hans Haacke, Ana Mendieta, Pierre Huyghe, Jeff Wall, Fiona Banner, Louise Bourgeois, Carol Bove, Jeff Wall, Dominique Gonzales-Foerster, and Sarah Lucas, to name a few.

Speaking of his curatorial approach in a 2015 interview with Art Map London, Honoré said an art museum, “should not be a temple and it should not be an amusement park. Displaying an artwork is an event, a talk is an event, and they create memories. Therefore, a museum is made of memories and when we leave it we should be filled with these memories…There is no prescribed formula that gets duplicated over time. We enjoy questioning the very essence of what an exhibition can be.”

MO.CO announced it would host a public ceremony in honor of the artist in the coming days.

When life is difficult, Samaritans are here—day or night, 365 days a year. You can call them for free on 116 123, email them at [email protected], or visit www.samaritans.org to find your nearest branch.
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a trained listener, call 988. Visit 988lifeline.org for crisis chat services or for more information. Learn More