Paul Maheke is announced as one of 16 fellows for 2025–26 at Villa Medici – the prestigious French Academy in Rome. He will embark on a year-long residency in Rome starting in September 2025, researching and producing new artwork. This chapter in Italy will be followed by a three-month residency at Amant, New York, in 2026.
Over this 18-month period, Maheke will be working on 'The Shadows of the Upright Effigies / Les ombres des gisant·e·s se tiennent debout,' a project exploring the representation of marginalised bodies in death and post-mortem social violence. By weaving together historical and contemporary perspectives – from medieval Rome to the transatlantic slave trade – the work questions how certain bodies remain in a liminal state, neither fully alive nor entirely dead.
At the heart of this inquiry is the undead: a figure that straddles life and death, existing as a symbol of both resilience and erasure.
