Théophile Pillault

Théophile Pillault was born in Tours in 1982. He currently works in Paris and Marrakech. A journalist and an author, his articles have been published by Vice, Pan African Music, Mouvement and Trax Magazine.

As an editor, he created the project Vas-y for painter Toma-l (published in 2011, awarded in 2013 at the Fedrigoni Top Awards). In 2014, he published The Chronicles, the first monograph dedicated to the painter JonOne (David Pluskwa Éditions / Pyramyd; English edition published by Griffon / Gingko Press). The following year, Théophile participated in the #FREEBASSEL campaign, a tribute to Bassel Khartabil, Syrian pioneer of the free Internet, imprisoned by the Assad regime. As part of this support project, he co-edited The Cost of Freedom in 2015 (Fabricatorz, #newpalmyra, BooksPrints). Sponsored by the French Institute of Tunisia, he presented in Tunis the Resolution[s] project in 2016, in partnership with the National Center of Ceramic Art – Sidi Kacem Jelizi.

After ten years in Marseille, he regularly traveled to Tunisia as a reporter and at the same time began a collaboration with the Montresso* Foundation and their art residency center Jardin Rouge (Marrakech, Morocco).

In 2018, Théophile Pillault co-wrote the documentary film UxÅ: a journey to the heart of Umeå hardcore scene.

In 2019 he published a second book dedicated to the work of the artist JonOne (Skira editions) and has just started editing a monograph on visual artist Rero, as well as a collection of texts for the ten-year celebration of the Montresso* Foundation, to be published by Skira in June 2020.

Since the Arab Spring, he has observed the emergence of electronic music scenes from Morocco to Egypt. From here, he joined Pan African Music, for whom he has documented the rise of the new pan-Arab movement.

A vast selection of his works is available online: http://theopillault.com