Inga Sund Hofset and K. Desbouis at Paris Internationale 2026

For Paris Internationale 2026, Femtensesse proudly presents a duo presentation by Norwegian artist Inga Sund Hofset and French artist K. Desbouis, centered on tension, sensitivity, and the body.

Hofset's abstract paintings depart from the notion of the "aura" both as an invisible field of light or energy surrounding living beings and as a state of premonition often preceding a neurological attack, such as migraine. Through a multifaceted process involving ink, watercolor, glue, egg tempera, and oil, her works explore this mental state of underlying pressure, where light bends, language falters, and signs begin to shift. Her painting method embraces risk, treating doubt and uncertainty as productive forces.

Hofset's shifting painterly fields are set in dialogue with Desbouis' soft sculptures, which draw on coded color systems—from gendered pinks and blues to the Swiss Lindt chocolate bunny and the red and white stripes of the American flag—pointing to identity as something constructed through shared visual cues. Referencing the term "snowflake," often used pejoratively to describe a generation perceived as fragile or overly self-invested, his sculptures engage with ideas of duplication and singularity. Composed of paired faux fur spheres with a leather belt looped between them, the works suggest bodies or particles held in an ambiguous, erotic stasis, between fusion and separation.

Through abstraction, the artists evoke bodily charged works, where furry textures meet feather-like painterly surfaces in fields of seductive tension.

Inga Sund Hofset (b. 1983, Ringerike) lives and works in Oslo, Norway. She has an MFA from Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Recent solo exhibitions include AURA SLICE, Sandefjord kunstforening, Sandefjord (2025); Retrett, Femtensesse Oslo (2023); Empat, LNM, Oslo (2021); Adorn, not for Being observed, Elephant Kunsthall, Lillehammer (2019); On Being Faces, Akershus Kunstsenter, Lillestrøm (2017); and Shifts, KVIT, Copenhagen (2017). Her work has been featured in group shows in Oslo, Paris and Berlin and presented through platforms such as the literary magazine Vinduet and Khartoum Contemporary Art Center (KCAC) in Oslo. In 2027, Hofset will participate in an artist residency at Lusaka Contemporary Art Centre (LuCAC) in Zambia, as part of OCA's international residency programme. Her work is included in the collections KORO – Public Art Norway and The City of Oslo Art Collection.  

K. Desbouis (b. 1993, Decize) lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal. He has an MFA from l'École Supérieure d'Art de Clermont Métropole (ESACM). Recent exhibitions include Snowflakes, Timeshare, Los Angeles (2025); Double Life, CAPC, Bordeaux (2025); 06/04/24, Gaudel de Stampa, Paris (2024); Governmental Fires, Futura, Prague (2021); and Antibodies, Palais de Tokyo (2021). Since 2021, he has been the editor of Suckcess, a magazine and a collective work exploring the continually renewed conditions of success, the performance of identity, class systems, and negativity. In 2027, he will have solo exhibitions at CRAC Alsace, Altkirch; Mae West, Lausanne; and Figura Avulsa, Lisbon. His work is included in the collections of Lafayette Anticipations, Paris; Frac Île-de-France, Paris; Los Angeles Contemporary Archives (LACA), Los Angeles; Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Clermont Communauté, Clermont-Ferrand.  

Our presentation for Paris Internationale 2026 is generously supported by OCA - Office for Contemporary Art Norway