Nouveau Programme: Sorry Sun

The Fondation Pernod Ricard is pleased to announce artists Saodat Ismailova, Alexandre Khondji, and Hélène Yamba-Guimbi as the first participants of its Nouveau Programme, curated by Liberty Adrien.

Continuing its long-standing support for the contemporary art scene in France, the Fondation Pernod Ricard introduces the Nouveau Programme—an evolution of the Foundation Prize, which, for nearly 25 years, has championed artists in the early stages of their careers. This new format reflects a meaningful shift: a reframing of the notion of emergence and a commitment to engagement that unfolds through a plurality of forms and over a longer period. 

The programme includes a group exhibition accompanied by a publication featuring a commissioned essay on each artist. It also offers tailored opportunities for each participant, such as support for a solo show with a partner institution, the production of a new work, or an international residency. Additionally, it upholds the Fondation Pernod Ricard’s long-standing partnership with the Centre Pompidou / MNAM through the acquisition of a work by each participating artist for the museum’s collection.

For its inaugural edition, the foundation has appointed Liberty Adrien as guest curator. She has invited Saodat Ismailova, Alexandre Khondji, and Hélène Yamba-Guimbi to participate in the programme, and will present Sorry Sun, a group exhibition featuring their works, which will take place from September 16 to October 31, 2025, at the Fondation Pernod Ricard.

Drawing on fragmented narration, layered stories, and shifting temporalities, the practices of Saodat Ismailova, Alexandre Khondji, and Hélène Yamba-Guimbi trace a cartography of disruption. Spanning moving image, installation, and sculpture, their works allude to the fault lines of our time—the erosion of collective ideals, disillusionment with technological promises, and the urgency of the ecological crisis—while popular beliefs, stories, and rituals resurface as fragments of memory and subtle forms of resistance. Suspended between clarity and ambiguity, the familiar and the intangible, their gestures seem to inhabit an intermediate space. The exhibition Sorry Sun unfolds on this very threshold, its title evoking an ambivalent light: at once tender and scorching, revealing and disorienting, vivid and weary.

Liberty Adrien is a French curator and writer. In July 2025, she will take up the position of Curator and Head of the Curatorial Department at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. Since 2022, she has been co-curator of Portikus, Frankfurt, alongside Carina Bukuts, where she has presented acclaimed solo exhibitions by Simone Fattal, Lap-See Lam, Tarik Kiswanson, Adrian Piper, Asad Raza, and Philippe Thomas, as well as group shows featuring works by Thomas Bayrle, Ayşe Erkmen, Slavs and Tatars, Derek Jarman, Sarah Maldoror, Trinh T. Minh-ha, and Cecilia Vicuña. Her practice also encompasses art historical research, writing on contemporary art, editing publications, and teaching.

Saodat Ismailova (b. 1981 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan) is an artist and filmmaker based in Paris whose work weaves personal and collective memories, myths, and rituals into everyday life, evoking the layered histories of Central Asia. Ismailova studied at the State Institute of Arts in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Fabrica (Italy), and Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains (France). Recent solo exhibitions include Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2024–2025), Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam (2023), and Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing (2023). Her work has been featured at the Venice Biennale (2013, 2022), documenta fifteen (2022), and in leading international film festivals. In 2021, she founded DAVRA, a collective dedicated to Central Asian cultural knowledge.

Alexandre Khondji is an artist based in Paris whose practice centers on site-specific research. Khondji studied at Bard College (USA) and the Royal College of Art, London (UK). Recent solo exhibitions include Sweetwater, Berlin (2025), and LUMA Arles (2021). His work has been featured in group shows at CAPC musée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux (2024), Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2025), and Maureen Paley: Studio M, London (2023). In 2025, he will participate in the Okayama Art Summit, Japan. 

Hélène Yamba-Guimbi (b. 1995 in Brittany, France) is an artist and poet based in Paris whose work blends text, photography, and sculpture. She studied at the École Duperré, Paris (France), the École nationale supérieure d’arts de Paris-Cergy (France), and the California Institute of the Arts (USA). Recent solo exhibitions include Tonus, Paris (2025), and Neuvitech, Paris (2023). Her work has been shown at Paris Internationale (2024), the Brooklyn Museum (2023), and Ygrec, Aubervilliers (2022). She has presented readings at the Centre international de la poésie de Marseille and the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Paris.