Mario d'Souza

Home Away From Home, Le Geste Juste

Rebecca KAEPPNER — 2026-03-17T11:45:20Z

"Home Away From Home, Le Geste Juste"

Mario D'Souza (born 1973, Bangalore) lives and works between India and Paris. Presented at the Alliance Française de Delhi in March 2026, Home Away From Home, le geste juste explores the idea of the “right gesture” : the moment when thought becomes action and an idea takes material form.

In D'Souza's practice, gesture is both a means of making and a way of thinking. Sewing, stitching, and embroidery become acts of reflection carried out through the hand, drawing upon long traditions of craftsmanship and transmission. The needle becomes a tool of discovery, through which simple forms—stars, flowers, constellations—gradually emerge.

For the first time, the artist has invited artisans to embroider his drawings. This shift from line to stitch marks an important evolution in his work. The drawing is no longer solely the artist's gesture but the result of collaboration, where craftsmanship is not a technical step but an essential dimension of the work itself.
Working slowly through repetition and attention to detail, D'Souza allows imperfections to remain visible. These marks become traces of time, labour, and presence. In this sense, the “right gesture” is not the perfect one, but the one that remains faithful to its origin.

The installation conceived for the Alliance Française introduces a new sense of verticality. Suspended works invite viewers to move through the space, encountering a field of forms, materials, and gestures rather than simply observing images.

Shaped by the artist's life between France and India, the work brings together different textile traditions—from French Toile de Jouy to Indian silk. Ultimately, the exhibition reflects on the idea of belonging : home not as a place, but as a state of openness. Creation begins with a simple gesture—a thread passing through fabric—from which form, and gradually a world, emerges.

Mario D'Souza

Rebecca KAEPPNER — 2026-03-17T11:03:44Z

Mario D'Souza has lived in France since 2001. Born in 1973 in Bangalore, he studied at the MSU School in Baroda, then at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

His work has received support from the Institut Français, the Centre National des Arts Plastiques, the DRAC (Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs) and the Regional Council of the Centre Region (France). With his immersive installations, Mario D'Souza invests the space with objects and drawings, creating a sensory universe where past, present, and future are juxtaposed, reflecting his inner exiles. In recent years his works have been presented in solo exhibitions in France and India, notably at the Chapelle Saint-Jacques, the Fondation d'entreprise Martell, the Château d'Oiron, the Mobilier National, the Nuit Blanche, and at the Alliance Française in New Delhi.

Mario D'Souza has also participated in several group exhibitions in France (MAC/VAL, Triennale de Vendôme, Salon de Montrouge, Espace Fondation EDF), in the United States (MASS-MoCA), and in India (Sakshi Gallery, Bombay).

Drawings of Albert Durer

Rebecca KAEPPNER — 2025-10-06T10:33:19Z

Home away from home

Rebecca KAEPPNER — 2025-10-06T10:26:26Z

‘Home away from Home'

For over two decades, creating a ‘home away from home' has been my mantra and daily practice. Being Indian-French and someone who melts two very distinct cultural identities, I am acutely aware of interpersonal and societal separations that arise due to differences in culture. With this background, creating a ‘home away from home' wherever I travel has become an all-embracing allegory for transforming divergence into convergence, be it at the level of speech, art, communication, self-development, community, rituals, or conversations with people across the globe.

As an artist who fosters space for artisans by deliberately showcasing hand-made products, I focus on the biodynamism of nature and life and use art and as well as my hybrid background as a message and pathway to deliver and awaken awareness of thought, spiritual principles, multiculturalism, migration, identity, and self-exploration. As I interact with local artisans, collect discarded objects, and dive into everyday life, I create art through community engagement. I focus on comfort, both inside of myself and in with my surroundings. In order to cultivate this inner and outer dialogue, I accompany my concepts by offering artist talks and interactions through workshops in galleries, prisons, schools, hospitals and museums. This way, my message becomes relatable and alive for my audience.

There are several elements and mediums that I use to represent the core of my beliefs, and which I bring as common thread to all my art. Through the prism of art, these mediums have become the metaphors of my message. One of these is hands : they represent the screen through which I see life. Hands and their function in someone's life reflects their psychology and inner attitude. Whether we see hands that work, dig and plant in the Earth, hands in rituals, or hands in movement ; the hands bring the inner essence to work. They are the fabric of human labor.

Another medium and physical element of my work that holds a strong metaphor is a chair. In its symbolism it represents a voting right, a voice, comfort, finding space, and power. As such, it captures a wide range of meaning ; for example someone can offer me a chair, or I can take a chair. A king sits higher than his subjects- his chair is a throne. In other cultures, people sit on the floor and not on chairs. Each scenario is different in its dynamic and context within which it takes place.

The recurring element that I find myself exploring with oftentimes is color as well as texture. I find that these two elements add identity. I draw on color paper and I seek color in my life, both physically and metaphorically. Growing up, I was taught to cherish color. My family treasures a collection of sarees that have been passed down through generations, each one more beautiful, vibrant, and colorful than the next. Furthermore, the form of a cloth can be in various states ; it can be folded and thereby occupy less space, or it can be widely spread out.

Observing how these elements embedded in their cultural symbolism are routinely used and expressed by the people I interact with, has guided me and become the substance of inspiration for my philosophy and in the creation of my artwork. At the source, becoming enveloped in culture and a part of people's experience is what I seek to share and portray in my art and is also what depicts the core of my swaddharma : ‘home away from home'.

Les 150 ans de l'Impressionisme

Rebecca KAEPPNER — 2025-10-06T10:20:56Z

Jaipur

Rebecca KAEPPNER — 2025-10-06T10:16:18Z

Home away from home

Rebecca KAEPPNER — 2025-10-06T10:12:35Z

Kochi Biennale

A place at the place

There are several elements and mediums that I use to represent the core of my beliefs, and which I bring as a common thread to all my art. Through the prism of art, these mediums have become metaphors for my message. One of these is my hands : they represent the screen through which I see life. Hands and their function in someone's life reflect their psychology and inner attitude. Whether we see hands that work, dig and plant on the Earth, hands in rituals, or hands in movement ; the hands bring the inner essence to work. They are the fabric of human labour.
The recurring element that I find myself exploring oftentimes is colour, also texture ; these two elements add identity. Observing how these elements embedded in their cultural symbolism are routinely used and expressed by the people I interact with, has guided me and become the substance of inspiration for my philosophy and in the creation of my artwork. At the source, becoming enveloped in culture and a part of people's experience is what I seek to share and portray in my art and is also what depicts the core of my swadharma, Home away from home.

Home away from Home

Organic indigo ink, varied dimensions Site-specific

This is a story to understand the essence of one's identity, a combination of the self with the other, which deals with compromise and adaption, a journey of changing one's home, stretching it to feel at home in that given, chosen space, the idea of movement, torment seen through colour and food. During this process of adaptation, new languages and new rituals are learnt, and new flavours are discovered. Years of learning and unlearning finally allow comfort. Life slowly becomes a composition of work and encounters, created through sharing, and understanding the dilemma of moving, of change, from one home to another.

For over two decades, creating a Home away from Home has been my mantra and daily practice. Being Indian-French and someone who melts two very distinct cultural identities, I am acutely sensitive to interpersonal and societal separations that arise due to differences in cultures and backgrounds. This becomes the backdrop in creating a Home away from home.

Alliance Française Trivandrum

Rebecca KAEPPNER — 2025-10-05T22:50:30Z

Kanoria Centre for Arts

Rebecca KAEPPNER — 2025-10-05T22:45:56Z

Kanoria Centre for Arts

Mario has been living in France for the past 23 years and is back in India for a short period, continuing to work as an artist. This installation speaks about the composition of cut flowers to celebrate, integrate, collaborate and curate a cultural high breed ! To help understand these cut emotions, Mario has recomposed them in the Kanoria Museum space. Metaphorically the flowers he has painted are transported from one region to another, before they reach the vase - a parable to his present life and journey. Symbolised by wall drawings, the indigo colour represents his identity and the installation is a metaphor to the everyday celebration of his life !

Home away from home

Rebecca KAEPPNER — 2025-10-05T22:35:34Z

Faisant suite à la résidence de Mario D'Souza et aux moments partagés avec les résidents et l'équipe, Home Away from Home se déploie pour quelques mois dans les espaces de la Maison nationale des Artistes.

Home Away from Home est plus qu'une exposition, c'est une expérience dans laquelle Mario « habite » l'espace. Il prend possession de la Maison qui, à son contact, se transforme, se décore, s'habille et retrouve une dimension personnelle et domestique. Le grand salon, la galerie, deviennent ainsi des lieux de l'intime, ceux dans lesquels Mario D'Souza dévoile son univers : les maisons où il a vécu, en Inde ou, ici en France, en région Centre Val-de-France, sa famille, les objets qu'il met en scène dans ses intérieurs…

On y découvre Mario D'Souza dans son quotidien au sein de son appartement parisien, on le voit travailler, déambuler au sein d'un espace où l'on retrouve des caractéristiques similaires à celles qui s'expriment à la Maison nationale des artistes : l'exubérance et la profusion des motifs, la combinaison de couleurs et de textures variées, des bibelots d'époques et de genres divers, des objets du quotidien qui deviennent sculptures par le geste de Mario, des dessins peints directement sur les murs, des cadres, des tissus… Il en résulte un univers bigarré et joyeux qui appelle au jeu et au déplacement.

Cette problématique du déplacement est justement part intégrante du travail et permet d'appréhender l'œuvre de l'artiste : le déplacement est, avant tout, le sien, celui d'un déplacement entre des pays, entre des langues, entre des cultures, entre des motifs et ornementations, entre des gestes et pratiques culturelles différents. Si ce déplacement apparaît comme rupture, celles présentes sur les toiles de l'exposition, cet « entre deux » est justement l'élément qui permet de réunir, d'assurer la connexion entre ces deux espaces du dessin mais plus globalement entre ces deux endroits où se situe Mario D'Souza en permanence. Le blanc permet ainsi la matérialisation de cet espace vierge dans et avec lequel Mario D'Souza a construit une identité nouvelle à la convergence de toutes ces influences. Le travail est ainsi celui du syncrétisme, celui qui permet à l'artiste d'être chez soi ailleurs et d'être toujours soi ailleurs.