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Fata Morgana

First edition of Jeu de Paume festival

From 22 March to 22 May 2022

Jeu de Paume – Paris

The Jeu de Paume festival offers the public the opportunity to discover the multiple dimensions of the image in the diversity of its forms. Combining exhibitions, screenings, performances and concerts, and presenting a large number of new productions, this event aims to give full visibility to artists rarely shown in France.

First edition of Jeu de Paume festival

This premiere, which occupies the entire building, is entrusted to Béatrice Gross, independent curator, with the artistic advice of Katinka Bock. The title chosen for this edition, “Fata Morgana”, refers to the exceptional phenomenon caused by the combination of mirages on the surface of the sea, whose refractions make suspended images of objects located below the horizon appear: it is therefore the singular sensitive realities conveyed by the contemporary image that the curators have chosen to explore.

The exhibition

“Fata Morgana” is a critical and poetic reflection on the concrete ways in which the visible appears, which is often more unstable and ambiguous than it seems. The multidisciplinary exhibition brings together, alongside photographs, films and video installations, sculptures, performances and sound pieces. It is a certain quality of attention to the sensitive world – rather than a theme, a movement or a generation – that is proposed. The title refers less to the trompe-l’oeil effect than to the learning of the eye, between wonder and deciphering.

26 guest artists

Béatrice Balcou, Nina Beier, Julien Bismuth, Antoine Catala, June Crespo, Jason Dodge, Ellie Ga, Marina Gadonneix, Rachel Harrison, Ilanit Illouz, Ann Veronica Janssens, Lenio Kaklea, Euridice Zaituna Kala, Özgür Kar, Raphaël Lecoquierre, Jochen Lempert, David Levine, Tala Madani, Diane Severin Nguyen, Constance Nouvel, B. Ingrid Olson, Christine Rebet, Sébastien Roux, Stéphanie Solinas,  Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Batia Suter.

Curator: Béatrice Gross
Artistic advisor: Katinka Bock
Scenography: Cécile Degos

The Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre, a privileged sponsor, has chosen to support the festival.

The Benefactors of the Jeu de Paume have contributed to the production of the works for this festival.

This project also received support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in France, the Mondriaan Fonds of the Netherlands, Pro Helvetia – Swiss Foundation for Culture, the Swiss Embassy in France, Institut suédois in Paris, and the Goethe Institute in Paris.

It was produced in partnership with Bureau des heures invisibles, Sheriff Projects and Voxon Photonics.

Media partners: Les Inrockuptibles, Télérama, Paris Première, Insert.