The result of a series of discussions on the growing role of poetry in contemporary artistic practices, the exhibition Des mots et des mondes considers writing as a plastic material in its own right.
Faced with a constant flow of information, artists do not seek to say more, but to say things differently, through sensitive, unique and contextualised forms. Words then become vectors of personal or collective emancipation, embodied in assemblages, positionings, semantic shifts and resolutely poetic reconfigurations.
Drawing on works from the collections of Beaux-Arts de Paris, contemporary creations and the work of students and teachers, Des mots et des mondes questions the power of words in the construction of narratives, knowledge and imaginations. While words can name, classify and order reality, they are also capable of shifting and transforming it, opening up new possibilities. The exhibition follows a movement from classification to speculation, from inherited frameworks – scientific, colonial, religious or institutional – to marginalised, rewritten or reinvented narratives.
Far removed from a linear and stabilised history of art, artists investigate, collect, recompose and invent: words become tools for bringing fragmented memories and marginalised subjectivities to the fore. From crisis to utopia, from history to individual trajectories, from reality to imagination, the exhibition reveals words as places of tension, but also as spaces for sharing, bringing hope and emancipation. Poetic, manifestos or fragile, words to connect, build community, transmit, fight.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication, a programme of events and a study day to be held on Wednesday 20 May 2026.
CURATION
Mélanie Bouteloup and Armelle Pradalier, jointly responsible of the « Artistes & Métiers de l’exposition » programme.
With the participation of students from the programme : Jeyni Ba, Louise Baranger, Mickaël Berdugo, Clémence Carel, Jules Charabouska, Armel Cotinat-Flynn, Sybille de Roquemaurel, Maeva Delettre, Eve Farache, Rafael Garcia Lara, Lucie Gholam, Sacha Kheireddine, Albane Liébel, Joséphine Loembe, Arthi Pauly Bertonneau, Laura Rutishauser, Tara Sammouri, Becem Sediri, Suzanne Vallejo Gomez, Léa Zarrad.
Scientific coordination for collections : Estelle Lambert, curator of prints and manuscripts at Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Associate lecturers : Anne Bourse, Stéphane Calais, Claude Closky, Julien Creuzet, Tristan Garcia, Jean-Yves Jouannais, Emmanuel Van der Meulen, Bruno Perramant et Chloé Quenum.
Thanks to the teams at the Beaux-Arts de Paris contemporary art library for their help in selecting artists' books, especially Amel Hamidou for her valuable advice.
WITH THE ARTISTS
Mayssa Abdelaziz, Youssef Abdelké, Amal Abdenour, Shafic Abboud, Tassiana Aït-Tahar, Hala Alabdalla, Himat M. Ali, Shakir Hassan Al Said, Chadine Amghar, Xavier Antin, Pseudo-Aristote, Claude Aveline, Omar Ba, Babi Badalov, Carlotta Bailly-Borg, Francis Barlow, Antoine-Louis Barye, William Basseux, Pietro Bertelli, Judith Blum Reddy, Alexander Boghossian, Salomé Botella, Jules Bourgoin, Anne Bourse, Myriam Boukrit, Yassin Bouzid & Mohamed Sadk Kaffel, Rodolphe Bresdin, Marcel Broodthaers, Stéphane Calais, Saul Calcagni, Ferdinand Carlier, Minna Castrén, Henri Chetaille, Claude Closky, Guy de Cointet, Lucas Cranach l’Ancien, Julien Creuzet, Bady Dalloul, Honoré Daumier, Odonchimeg Davaadorj, Isaac de Crécy, Brune de Soto, Li Deshayes-Parré, Céleste Desplanche, François Desprez, Idriss Diabaté, Georgette Diallo, Ndidi Dike, Fringues de Dingues, Dornac, Clara Duflot, Dizy Durand-Gnougnou, Claudine Eizykman, Irène Fanshawe, Nicolas Faubert (Kryzastylz), Lucy Citti Ferreira, Robert Filliou, Brandon Gercara, Adolphe Giraudon, Gloria Glitzer, Cléopatra Gones, Cily Gonzalez, Jean-Jacques Grandville, Juliette Green, Joseph Grigely, Robert Groborne, Guichoune de Berroeta, Abraham Hadad, Te Ata Hapaitahaa-Conroy, Adam Henein, Christine Herzer, Katsushika Hokusai, Daniel Hopfer, Anna Jaccoud, Jean-Yves Jouannais, William Kentridge, Manabu Kōchi, Ndayé Kouagou, Elie Laflorencie, Christian Lattier, Jules Laurens, Lou Le Forban, Maëlle Lucas-Le Garrec, Stéphane Le Mercier, Seulgi Lee, Anouk Léger, Lucille Leger, Htein Lin, Lee Lozano, Pierre Loti, Prosper-Georges-Antoine Marilhat, Léonard Martin, Raban Maur, Soanie Marie-Rose, Lydia Matiegou-Keïta, Chloé Menous, Annette Messager, Dimitri Milbrun, Nuria Mokhtar, Bruno Perramant, Mathis Pettenati, Michalis Pichler, Clarisse Pillard, Giovanni-Battista Piranesi, Marius Plaksine, Monique Poncelet, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Loïs Rambeau, Guy Rambouts, Soa Ratsifandrihana, Hubert Renard, Anne Rochette, Stéphanie Saadé, Nadia Saïkali, Clément Schaab, Ursula Schultze-Bluhm, Pascal Sébah, Vega Serafina, Cécil Serres, Darja Shatalova, Wanrong Song, Camille Soualem, Daniel Spoerri, Lorenz Stoër, Ieva Stankuté, Christine Sun Kim, Antoni Tàpies, Colombes Thaller, Lalie Thiebaut-Maviel & Maéva Prigent, Théodore Valério, Lê Văn Đê, Egon Van Herreweghe, Cecilia Vicuña, Adrianna Wallis, Hans Weigel l'Aîné, Dominique Willoughby, Jacques Yankel, Pan Yuliang, Mia Yu, Ossip Zadkine, Radouan Zeghidour.
With the support of Société Générale.
Graphic design : Halldora Magnusdottir
