Art Historian & Curator

Building tomorrow's museum,
discovering and re‑discovering
art history

Alexis de Bernède is an art historian, curator, and doctoral candidate at the École Doctorale Georges Vedel, Université Panthéon-Assas Paris II, with an MSt in Art History and Visual Culture from the University of Oxford. His research spans museum governance and public law, Scandinavian Surrealism, and the institutional implications of decentralised technologies for the cultural sector — alongside the sustained work of bringing into focus chapters of art history that remain in the margins, overlooked or awaiting the attention they deserve. He is also the founder and director of Darmo, a Paris-based contemporary art programme active since 2018.

Université Panthéon-Assas Paris II Doctoral candidate, Public Law,
Museum Development & Governance
University of Oxford MSt, History of Art and Visual Culture
Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe – Art & Culture 2021 World's 40 Under 40 Emerging Leaders 2023

Research

Museum Studies & Public Law

The Museum in the Twenty-First Century: Crisis of the National Model and the Emergence of Decentralised Structures

Working paper — Museum Studies / Public Law

An inquiry into the structural pressures confronting the classical national museum model, charting the emergence of distributed and post-national institutional configurations in response to political, financial, and epistemic crises.

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The Institution Without Territory: A Legal Theory of the Post-National Museum

Working paper — Museum Law

A legal-theoretical framework for conceptualising museums that operate beyond the jurisdictional and symbolic boundaries of the nation-state, drawing on public international law, heritage law, and institutional theory.

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The DAO as a New Form of Governance: Potentialities and Limits

Working paper — Governance / Web3

A critical assessment of Decentralised Autonomous Organisations as candidate models for cultural governance, examining their constitutional logic, democratic potential, and structural contradictions when applied to public institutions.

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The Decentralised Museum: Web3 Governance Frameworks and the Case of the Centre Pompidou

Working paper — Museum Studies / Web3

A case study examining how blockchain-based governance frameworks interact with the institutional architecture of a major public museum, using the Centre Pompidou as a test for the applicability of decentralised models.

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Distributed Curation Between Cultural Democracy and Expert Authority: Toward a Hybrid Governance Model for the Decentralized Museum

Working paper — Curatorial Theory / Governance

An exploration of the tension between participatory curation and expert authority within decentralised institutions, proposing a hybrid governance architecture that preserves epistemic standards while broadening democratic legitimacy.

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Art History — Scandinavian Surrealism

Convergence as Surrealist Principle: Against Fragmentation, Toward Union in Esaias Thorén's The Red Evening (1936)

Working paper — Art History / Halmstadgruppen

A close reading of Esaias Thorén's The Red Evening as a manifesto of convergence within Swedish Surrealism, arguing that the Halmstadgruppen's collective logic resists the isolating tendency of orthodox Surrealist practice in favour of a unifying pictorial and philosophical programme.

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Exhibitions

2026

Mémoires Carbone: Atramentum

Maxime Passadore

Darmo, Paris — Jun–Jul 2026

A little bit of this and a lot of that

Pauline d'Andigné

Darmo, Paris — Apr–May 2026

Quelque chose qui demeure

Oussama Garti, Kenza El Idrissi

Darmo, Paris — Mar–Apr 2026

2025

Exceptional Works on Paper: Icons of the 20th Century

Antonin Artaud, Fernand Léger, Joan Miró, Man Ray

Darmo, Paris — Oct 2025

Wonder

Juliette Barthe

Darmo, Paris — Dec 2025

Minimal

Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Carl André, Gunther Förg, Marcia Hafif, François Morellet

Darmo, Paris — Dec 2025

Sleeping under the silver tree

Radu Băieș

Darmo, Paris — Nov 2025

As the world enters into resonance

aurèce vettier

Darmo, Paris — Oct 2025

Of Flowers and Layers

Pauline d'Andigné

Bastide du Roy, Antibes — Jul 2025

La luce non vede

Vittoria Gerardi, aurèce vettier

Hotel Mediterraneo, Lido di Jesolo — May–Sep 2025

Stèles & Berceaux

Raphaëlle Bertran

Darmo, Paris — Mar 2025

2024

The Sun Keeps Rising

Radu Băieș

Palais Ghica Victoria, Bucharest — Nov–Dec 2024

Darmo Art Prize 2024

Agnes Questionmark, Joel Gait

Espace Commines, Paris — Oct 2024

Forêt, tentative

aurèce vettier

Bastide du Roy, Antibes — Jul–Aug 2024

2023

Ḑermes

Javier Carro Temboury, Pauline d'Andigné

Gismondi & Darmo, Paris — Nov–Dec 2023

Solo Show: Martin Faure

Martin Faure

Gismondi & Darmo, Paris — Oct–Nov 2023

Modern Masters from the South of France

Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Henri Matisse

Bastide du Roy, Antibes — Jul 2023

Le reste est nuance

Oussama Garti

Gismondi & Darmo, Paris — May–Jun 2023

5th Anniversary of Darmo

aurèce vettier, Pauline d'Andigné

Gismondi & Darmo, Paris — Mar 2023

2022

Contemplations

Martin Faure

Gismondi & Darmo, Paris — Sep–Oct 2022

Latenza

Vittoria Gerardi

Gismondi & Darmo, Antibes — Aug–Sep 2022

Drippy

Pauline d'Andigné, Swann Ronné

Château Saint-Georges, Grasse — Aug 2022

Revival

Raf Reyes

Palais Ghica Victoria, Bucharest — Jun 2022

Ripples

Oussama Garti

Gismondi & Darmo, Paris — Apr–May 2022

2021

Opus Sectile: From Hardstone Marquetry to aurèce vettier

aurèce vettier

Gismondi & Darmo, Paris — Nov–Dec 2021

Solo Show: Raf Reyes, at Vendôme Saint-Honoré

Raf Reyes

VSH, Paris — Sep 2021

Meeting the Moderns

Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Henri Matisse

Bastide du Roy, Antibes — Jun–Jul 2021

Hide to Reveal

Swann Ronné

Darmo, Paris — Jan–Feb 2021

2020

Solo Show: Pauline d'Andigné

Pauline d'Andigné

Salvatore Ferragamo, Paris — Sep–Oct 2020

Solo Show: Raf Reyes

Raf Reyes

Salvatore Ferragamo, Paris — Feb 2020

2019

Symbioses

Pauline d'Andigné, Swann Ronné

Gismondi & Darmo, Paris — Sep 2019

2018

Metamorphoses

Raf Reyes, Pauline d'Andigné

Gismondi & Darmo, Paris — Apr 2018

Lectures & Talks

Building Art Collections

Round table — Horizon Patrimoine, L'Opinion, Paris

2024

AI & Art: A Brief History and Current Landscape

CBC Banque Privée, Brussels

2023

Generative Art

Lacoste Executives, Paris

2022

Innovating in the Creative Industries

Ministry of Culture (Saudi Arabia) programme — Institut Français de la Mode, Paris

2022

AI and Art

Institut Français de la Mode, Paris

2022

Publications

As Editor

Le Travail des Rêves

Darmo, 2024 — ISBN 978-2-9569846-7

Forêts, Tentative

Darmo, 2024 — ISBN 978-2-9569846-8

Martin Faure

Darmo, 2023 — ISBN 978-2-9569846-6

Circular Ruins

Darmo, 2022 — ISBN 978-2-9569846-5

Ripples: Oussama Garti & Kenza El Idrissi

Darmo, 2022 — ISBN 978-2-9569846-2

Opus Sectile: From Hardstone Marquetry to Aurèce Vettier

Gismondi, 2021 — ISBN 978-2-9569846-1

As Author Forthcoming

The Halmstad Group

Monograph — in preparation

The Cluj School: Transylvanian Painting Today

Monograph — in preparation

Contact

For exhibition proposals, lecture invitations, editorial enquiries, or collection advisory mandates, please write directly.