Anne-Claire Defossez Didier Fassin

portrait

Resident
01.04.2021 - 31.05.2021

Medici Residency

Research

Biography

Born in 1956 in Zweibrücken, Germany, Anne-Claire Defossez is a sociologist. She is a research fellow at theInstitute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

As a research assistant at the Institut des Hautes Études d’Amérique Latine, she first conducted research on street children in Colombia as part of a former Orstom project, and on women’s health in Ecuador as part of an Inserm program. She then worked as a consultant in the fields of social policy, education and employment for local authorities, French ministries and the European Union, before holding senior management positions in two major cities in the Paris region, with particular responsibility for cultural policy and international cooperation. Since joining the Institute for Advanced Study, she has been conducting research on women and politics in France. She co-edited the book Mujeres de los Andes.

 

Born in 1955 in Juvisy-sur-Orge, Didier Fassin is a physician and anthropologist. Professor at theInstitute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and Director of Studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, he holds the annual Chair in Public Health at the Collège de France.

After working as a senior physician in internal medicine, he turned to the social sciences, conducting research on urban medicine in Senegal, women’s health in Ecuador, AIDS in South Africa and humanitarian aid from an international perspective. His most recent work focuses on the police, justice and prisons in France. He has given the Tanner Lectures on Punishment and the Adorno Lectures on the Politics of Life. Recipient of the Gold Medal for Anthropology at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Nomis Distinguished Scientist Award for a program entitled Global Crisis, he gave his inaugural lecture at the Collège de France on the inequality of life. A former vice-president of Médecins sans Frontières, he chairs Comede, the Committee for the Health of Exiles. He recently published Punish. A contemporary passion, La Vie mode d’emploi reviews and Death of a traveler. A counter-inquiry .

Project

The project for which they are benefiting from a writing residency at Villa Medici focuses on migration along the French-Italian border in the Alps, in particular the experience of those who cross it at the provisional end of several years’ travel, and the tensions between local solidarity and repressive policies.

After residency

Production grant

publication

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All our tears

in co-production with Éditions Cambourakis

2026

Based on the death of a mother crushed by anti-feminism and dissolved in the water of a river, a text found in the deceased’s personal belongings and the emergence of memories of what was experienced as a child, this book aims to reflect on the socio-historical condition of women and gender minorities who suffer violence and live with the dead. With overwhelming intensity, Clovis Maillet Monory’s family and historical investigation brilliantly interweaves our intimate and collective mourning.

This book is co-produced by the production grant Éditions Cambourakis x La Villa Médicis.

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Production grant

exhibition

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By mistake and at random

in co-production with Maison Salvan

11.03 - 02.05.2026

Nicolas Daubanes compares two creative sites of very different scales: the Villa Medici, a prestigious Roman residence, and the Maison Salvan, a modest village house that has become an artistic home. He thus engages in a conversation with works and historical figures such as Galileo, Ingres, Velázquez and Courbet. While some of his earlier works are also on display, the exhibition mainly features recent works from his ongoing research.

This exhibition is co-produced as part of the Maison Salvan x Villa Medici production grant.

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Prince of Monaco – Villa Medici Artistic Grant

The Inner Fire

2026

Fellow at the Villa Medici in 2024–2025, Nicolas Daubanes is the recipient of the first Prince of Monaco – Villa Medici Artistic Grant for the year 2025. In this context, he is developing the project Le feu intérieur (‘The Inner Fire’) inspired by the architecture and collections of the Villa. Nicolas Daubanes revisits the works of artists associated with the Villa, including François-Marius Granet, Camille Corot, Diego Velázquez and the engravings of Piranèse, using the photogram technique. He creates images in which light becomes matter, thanks to the photosensitive revelation of projected steel sparks.

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Production grant

publication

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The great method

in co-production with La fabrique éditions

2026

An Algerian immigrant family sets off to bury their father back home. During this journey, disturbed by apparitions, something begins to unravel: the secrets of the people that exile fails to make them forget.
La grande méthode is the latest book by Louisa Yousfi, fellow in 2024-2025, and explores the delicate seam between the visible world and the invisible worlds that persist in the shadows and still inhabit “Western” minds.

This book was co-produced under the La fabrique éditions x Villa Medici production grant.

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Production grant

symposium

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Preserving human remains

22.01 - 23.01.2026 - Paris

Former fellow Laure Cadot (2023-2024) is organizing and taking part in the international symposium “Preserving human remains” at the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. These meetings on new approaches to conservation and the care of human remains in institutions aim to highlight and discuss professional practices in the light of contemporary issues surrounding this unique heritage.

This symposium is co-produced as part of the Louis Roederer Foundation grant.

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Production grant

exhibition

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Une pierre sous la langue

in co-production with Frac Franche-Comté

17.10.2025 - 01.03.2026 - Besançon

The exhibition Une pierre sous la langue (A Stone Under the Tongue) refers to a Saharan poem that recommends putting a stone under the tongue to forget, and throwing it towards the sun to remember… It brings together works created between 2021 and 2024, including two pieces from the Frac collection, as well as previously unseen works created especially for the occasion, notably during the artist’s stay at Villa Medici as a resident.

This exhibition is co-produced as part of the Louis Roederer Foundation grant.

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Production grant

exhibition

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Resources: Act #2

Bienal de São Paulo

in co-production with Bienal de São Paulo

06.09.2025 - 11.01.2026 - São Paulo

Conceived in the form of a pontoon, Les Ressources : Acte #2 (2025) is a monumental installation acting as a ship carrying found objects such as fragments of wood, ropes and jerrycans, reminiscent of all the boats that sail the open sea and, by extension, fishing activities.

This installation is co-produced as part of the Louis Roederer Foundation grant.

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!Viva Villa! project

exhibition

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Yvonne Rainer: A Reader

in co-production with Crac Occitanie

11.10.2025 - 15.02.2026 - Sète

The exhibition takes its title from the English term ” reader “, which refers both to a publication containing a collection of texts by an author, and to the very position of reader. This unprecedented format is extended to the context of a transdisciplinary exhibition: although it has the appearance of a monograph, this exhibition brings together a multiplicity of artists, performers and researchers, whose voices resonate around Yvonne Rainer.

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Palladium palms

!Viva Villa! project

exhibition

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Sensitive machine

in co-production with Cité des Arts de la Réunion

03.10.2025 - 31.01.2026 - Saint-Denis, Reunion Island

“Machine sensible” is an exhibition of digital, technological, trans- and multi-media works by Mounir Ayache, Diane Cescutti, Abel Techer and Raphaëlle Von Knebel, whose creations are born of a renewed attention to and mastery of textile creation, design, painting and sculpture. Each artist, through his or her visual and plastic language, questions the evolution of our condition as being-in-the-world and our coexistence on real and/or virtual territories by setting up narratives whose fictional imaginations invite us to better embrace our shared futures.

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Production grant

Tempesta

in co-production with Un Éte au Havre, Chevaldeuxtrois

01.06 - 31.08.2025 - Le Havre

Set in little-known parts of Le Havre, Tempesta echoes the myth of Prometheus and the history of the city’s destruction. In a tableau that brings together the present and the ancient, Mali Arun summons young dancers into a world of light and shadow. Chevaldeuxtrois and Un Été Au Havre present, in coproduction with the Académie de France à Rome – Villa Médicis, a film by Mali Arun produced by Jérémy Forni.

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