If there is one medium that requires restrictive exhibition systems, it is video. However, Isabelle (77 years old) and Jean-Conrad (83 years old) Lemaître have decided to bequeath their entire video collection to the Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (MAC Lyon).
MAC Lyon will thus be enriched with 170 video works produced between 1984 and 2025 by 155 artists of 43 nationalities, including 50% female artists. Among the major artists represented are British Turner Prize winners such as Gillian Wearing, Steve McQueen and Mark Wallinger, as well as Tacita Dean, Isaac Julien, the duo Allora & Calzadilla, and Yto Barrada, Clément Cogitore and Zineb Sedira.
This legacy brings to nearly 350 the number of video works preserved by MAC Lyon and confirms the pioneering role of the institution in this field. Since its creation in 1984, the museum has stood out for its interest in video. It already owns works by leading artists like Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Gary Hill, Bill Viola, Bruce Nauman and Ange Leccia, as well as emerging artists.
To mark this enrichment, the inaugural exhibition “Regardssensibles” will present from March 6, 2026 a selection of works from the legacy. The curatorship is entrusted to Tasja Langenbach, director of the Videonale festival in Bonn (Germany) and a recognized figure in video in Europe, close to the couple.
While leading an international career in banking, Jean-Conrad Lemaître has been collecting video art for nearly three decades. He and his wife began in the 1980s by acquiring classic works (prints, paintings, sculptures) before becoming interested in photography in the 1990s.
In 1996, the couple purchased their first video work, Boy Time by British artist Gillian Wearing. The medium, still little considered on the art market of the time, immediately imposed itself on them. Cinephiles and pioneers, they decided to devote themselves exclusively to video art.
After a decade of discreet acquisitions, the collection was revealed to the general public in 2006 at the Maison Rouge – Fondation Antoine de Galbert, during the exhibition “A Vision of the World”. The collection then circulates internationally. She has been the subject of around twenty exhibitions, notably at the Kunsthalle in Kiel in Germany, at the Art Gallery of the University of San Diego in the United States, at the Museum of Modern Art in Tel Aviv and at the Nomas Foundation in Rome.
In 2007, Isabelle and Jean-Conrad Lemaître created the StudioCollector Prize at Fresnoy – National Studio of Contemporary Arts in Tourcoing. Endowed with 7,000 euros, it rewards an emerging artist in the video field each year. The couple is also a patron and member of associations supporting several institutions, including the Friends of the Center Pompidou and the Antoine de Galbert Foundation.
