The ‘Prince.sse.s’ urban exhibition, from 21 June to 8 September 2019 at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, is presented as an imaginary, multiple and complex cityscape, without borders, disorderly, stunning and creative. It’s a highlight of the season of contemporary art in Paris.
Visual artists, fashion designers, tattoo artists and musicians: some 50 artists are showcased without geographical grouping, mainly via new productions and on-site takeovers.
Giant, contrasting cities
Megacities such as Dhaka, Lagos, Manila, Mexico City and Tehran are the expression of a web of contradictions, as evidenced by their saturated traffic. Obviously, these giant cities are very different from each other. Their cultural, political and social peculiarities teem with many stories, all of which are crossroads that give a glimpse of their identities.
Between skyscrapers and cabins, megacities are experiencing chaotic expansion, mixing capital transfers and technological connections in the financial markets, and generating multiple inequalities. This vast and disordered movement transforms cities into incessant projects, favouring imaginary deviations.
Scenography of the show designed by architect Olivier Goethals
The artists that emerge are the loafers of the 21st century, the hackers of our responses to an often functional and standardised urban environment. Brutal and breathtaking suspensions, mysterious landscapes, bright or opaque areas: the show was designed by architect Olivier Goethals. Whether visited by day or night, he has developed an architectural itinerary that reveals and accentuates the lines of force of the building, which is considered here as a huge common space.