SAO PAULO.- Nara Roesler São Paulo is presenting Do Vento, a solo exhibition by French artist Xavier Veilhan, featuring works conceived through his Transatlantic Studio—a project in which the artist transfers his studio to a sailboat, offering an alternative to air transport for the transportation of works of art.
Aboard the Outremer 5X catamaran—a wind-powered vessel made from 50% flax fiber—Veilhan, his team, and his works crossed the Atlantic Ocean, departing from Concarneau, Brittany, France, and arriving at the port of Santos, Brazil. The artist developed part of the works during the trip and completed them in São Paulo, where they are being presented to the public at Nara Roesler São Paulo, from November 8, 2025, to January 31, 2026. “I want to further develop this initiative of a floating studio and wind-powered transportation for some of my upcoming exhibitions. The goal is to create new imaginaries and offer an alternative to the pressures and frenetic pace of the art world: international fairs and exhibitions consume enormous amounts of energy and prioritize speed,“ explains the artist. ”The sector needs to adapt to ecological challenges, but it has difficulty doing so while remaining competitive. This project is an experiment, an attempt—which has value as a work of art in itself," he adds. For this expedition, the artist will be accompanied by Roland Jourdain, award-winning sailor and co-founder of the Fondation Explore; Denis Juhel, assistant captain; Matthias Colin, oceanographer, who will be on board for research purposes; Antoine Veilhan, the artist's son, who specializes in carpentry; and Carmen Panfiloff, sculpture and joinery assistant.
The Fondation Explore and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris are partners in this voyage and will use the crossing for scientific research. Plankton samples were collected along the route and transmitted via satellite to feed scientific databases. On board, a hydrofoil equipped with a hydrophone recorded underwater life.
The intention is for Veilhan to work as he does in his studio in France. The boat is not just a means of transport, but a studio on the move. To produce sculptures on board, the team will bring woodworking equipment from France, designed by Antoine, built to work without electricity, such as a pedal-powered band saw.
In Do vento, Xavier Veilhan revisits a central concern in his practice: the relationship between the second and third dimensions. For him, every sculpture begins as a line, and it is through their accumulation and succession that volume emerges. This articulation between the graphic and the spatial mirrors the passage from image to reality. A linear rhythm unfolds throughout the exhibition: in wall drawings, mobiles, and sculptures, where layers of assembled plywood suggest both structure and fluidity.
Evoking the steady line of the horizon and the shifting coordinates of the navigation chart which brought the exhibition to life, these forms translate Veilhan’s transatlantic passage into a spatial drawing where orientation and movement coexist.
The exhibition also includes a video, made during the trip, which intertwines elements of fiction and documentary. As Veilhan observes, the project is “a celebration of everything that is alive, a celebration of nature.”
The exhibition at Nara Roesler São Paulo is the first of a new model of creation and transportation of works conceived by the artist, incorporating sustainability and also the creative process in a more emphatic way into his poetics. In this way, through future partnerships inside and outside France, the intention is to expand this format, bringing new arrangements, materials, and debates to it.
