Paris Internationale - © Paris Internationale
Tonus - © Paris Internationale
Tonus

Tonus is an artist-run space founded in 2014 by the duo Jacent (Jade Fourès-Varnier and Vincent de Hoÿm). The project was born out of a desire to support and showcase emerging local and international artists, offering a space for experimental exhibitions by new and up-and-coming talents. Tonus is built on a spirit of conviviality, generosity and authenticity. The program focuses on exhibitions developed in close collaboration with guest artists and curators. Over the years, Tonus has become a key player in the revival of the Parisian alternative scene, spotlighting a whole generation of artists.

In 2024, Tonus celebrates its tenth anniversary with a series of exhibitions featuring artists Roger van Voorhees, Jakob Forster, Antoine Trapp, and Clémentine Bruno, concluding in 2025 with the first solo exhibition of Hélène Yamba-Guimbi.

189 rue Ordener, 75018 Paris, France

Jacent
Tonus - © Paris Internationale

Jacent
Exhibition view, House Call at Sans titre, Paris, 2023

Jacent
All Night Long
2024
Painted and fired earthenware tiles, formwork and painted wooden artist's frame - © Jacent, Paris Internationale

Jacent
All night long, 2024
Painting on glazed earthenware, baked, mounted on plywood, artist frame
120,8 × 75,6 cm

While their paintings often take over the walls of the exhibition space, their aim is to turn the authoritarian, inextricable white cube into a welcoming zone, to convey the pleasure they feel when confronted with it.

Benoît Lamy de La Chapelle

Jacent
I’m So Into You, 2024
Painting on glazed earthenware, baked, mounted on plywood, artist frame
120,8 × 75,6 cm

Tonus - © Paris Internationale

In German, the term Gesamtkunstwerk is used to describe work that unites different media into a whole that eradicates all boundaries between aestheticism and reality. It is precisely this term, which has no equivalent in French, that is likely to define Jacent’s practice. A body of work where questions of conviviality and domesticity interrogate all media without limit.

Sophie Pinet

Tonus - © Paris Internationale

Jacent
Mira (M), 2023
Painting on glazed earthenware, baked, mounted on plywood, artist frame
41 × 25,8 cm

Tonus - © Paris Internationale

Jacent, Exhibition view, Don’t Push The River… at Le Shed, CAC Normandie, Maromme, 2022

Tonus - © Paris Internationale

Jacent, Exhibition view, Glücksspiel, Le jeu de l’amour et du hasard at sonneundsolche, Düsseldorf, 2022

Hélène Yamba-Guimbi
Tonus - © Paris Internationale

Hélène Yamba-Guimbi
Bachelor machines III, 2023
Light bulb, fixture and photo prints mounted on plexiglass, polyester fabrics
17.5 × 9 × 25 cm

Influenced by Sara Ahmed’s theories on emotions as shared social constructs, Hélène shapes ambiguous, intimate stories to challenge conventional narratives. Through her hide-and-seek approach, she engages with the threads of loss, desire, and fantasy that bind us to one another and the world.

Tonus - © Paris Internationale

Hélène Yamba-Guimbi
Our Conversation, 2023
2 lights, 3 balls made of plaster, composite material, electric cord
LED bulb and fixture, Arduinos
110 × 110 × 20cm

Tonus - © Paris Internationale

Hélène Yamba-Guimbi
ZEALouzy…, 2023
2 shoes, lamp, 4 balls of plaster, epoxy resin

To me, many of Hélène’s sculptures embody a movement that oscillates between feelings of detachment and adhesion—both with oneself and the world. This relationship with otherness, both individual and collective, reminds me of an idea uttered by Franco “Bifo” Berardi, which has long resonated with me. The writer suggests “not focusing on the flow, but on one’s own breath. Don’t follow the external rhythm, but breathe normally”.

I tie these words to the two sculptures in Our Conversations, which breathe in and out in response to one another until they fall into complete desynchronization. Here, arrhythmias emerge, producing and highlighting a necessary dysfunction.

Elise Legal

Tonus - © Paris Internationale

Hélène Yamba-Guimbi
Bachelor machines (1) & (2), 2021
light bulb, fixture, plexiglass and photo prints
17.5 × 9 × 25 cm

Installation view of a group show at the artist-run space Ygrèves, Cergy, 2022

Tonus - © Xavier Dartayre, Paris Internationale
Tonus - © Paris Internationale

Hélène Yamba-Guimbi
I am addressing to you, 2023
light bulb, plexiglass, fabric and photo prints

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