Thomas Sauvin – Until Death Do Us Part – Artist Talk
17 September 2026, 7 pm
Softcover, Stumpergasse 53-55, 1060 Vienna
Talk language: English
Join us this evening at Softcover for this special artist talk by Thomas Sauvin about his legendary photo book “Until Death Do Us Part”, the Beijing Silvermine project and his work as an archivist and artist in general. Meet the artist and get a signed copy of his books.
Tickets:
- Tickets are available in exchange for a donation of any amount.
- We recommend 10 € so that we can cover part of Thomas’ artist fee and travel expenses. Thank you very much.
- The number of tickets is limited.
- Tickets are non-refundable.
- If you are unable to attend, you may transfer your ticket to another person.
About Thomas Sauvin:
Born in Paris in 1983, Thomas Sauvin is an archivist, artist, and publisher working between Paris and Beijing. In 2009, he founded Beijing Silvermine, a project devoted to found photography and vernacular archives. Comprising more than one million negatives and images from late twentieth-century China, the collection has become one of the largest private archives of its kind.
Through photobooks, exhibitions, installations, and collaborations with other artists, Sauvin explores how anonymous photographs can move beyond their original documentary function and acquire new artistic and cultural meanings. He has published more than a dozen artist books and exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, and the Guangdong Museum of Art. His books are held in major institutional collections worldwide.
His current exhibition, Beijing Silvermine: Archive Anthology, is presented at Fotografiska Shanghai from June 19 to October 18, 2026. Organized by guest curator Holly Roussell, it is the most extensive presentation of Beijing Silvermine to date. Bringing together more than 1,500 photographs, artist books, archival objects, installations, and collaborative works, the exhibition retraces the project’s development over more than fifteen years—from the rescue of discarded film negatives on the outskirts of Beijing to their transformation into a continually evolving artistic archive.
About “Until Death Do Us Part”:
“Until Death Do Us Part” focuses on the unexpected role cigarettes play in Chinese weddings. As a token of appreciation, it is customary for the bride to light a cigarette for each and every guest invited. The bride and the groom are then invited to play some cigarette-smoking games of an unprecedented ingenuousness. This publication pays homage to a tradition in which love and death walk hand in hand. The book has won countless awards and was re-printed in its 7th edition in 2025.
Beijing Silvermine Instagram
Beijing Silvermine Website
Beijing Silvermine in the Press
Thomas Sauvin Instagram