Nikhil Chopra and Uriel Barthélémi perform for EMBERS/BRACI at Galleria Continua

Galleria Continua presents EMBERS / BRACI, an art exhibition by Indian artist Nikhil Chopra and French musician, drummer and composer Uriel Barthélémi at the gallery’s San Gimignano venue in Italy, on view from May 9 – September 13, 2026. Following the two-part performances Fire x Fire – Ignition and Fire x Fire – Combustion, staged at La POP and Monnaie de Paris in autumn 2024, the contemporary art exhibition seeks to address urgent questions surrounding ecological vulnerability, political instability and the precarious conditions of contemporary life. The exhibition reactivates the drawings Chopra created during the 2024 performances. “Sound and drawing merge, extending the questions at the heart of their collaboration: how does fire wound us? How does it comfort us? Are we made of mud, water, air, and fire?” Galleria Continua notes.

On the opening day, Chopra and Barthélémi presented a three-hour live performance—with Barthélémi’s drums filling the space and Chopra creating a landscape painting in real time. The costumes for the performance were designed by French costume designer Marion Moinet. Chopra’s partnership with the French creative began in 2016 with Floating Cities and Loaded Dice, a three-hour performance at Gare du Nord in Paris that addressed the realities of refugees in France and Europe.

EMBERS / BRACI highlights Chopra’s artistic practice rooted in memory. Working across drawing, theatre, live art and installation, he has created an artistic language uniquely his own. “As an artist working outside the traditional conventions of the studio, Chopra creates in real time, often in front of a live audience, allowing the act of making itself to become an integral part of the work. His body thus becomes site, medium and narrative, through which the work takes shape,” the art gallery notes.

The contemporary artist’s performances are frequently improvised and durational, and his characters are rarely anchored to a specific historical moment, yet they evoke an intimate familiarity that challenges perceptions of history and selfhood. “With an undercurrent of playfulness, there is a palpable play of tension and balance between the artist and the viewer, who may follow and observe closely, but is never fully aware of the act in its entirety,” the gallery further notes.

“EMBERS / BRACI marks a moment in an important chapter. With this exhibition, Nikhil Chopra resumes his artistic practice from where he left off, before taking on the role of curator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, titled For the Time Being, which concluded at the end of March 2026. The exhibition stands as both echo and transformation: a final combustion before a new beginning,” Galleria Continua mentions.