Entitled “Virages Vierges” [Virgin Turns], Pauline Curnier Jardin’s solo exhibition takes as its starting point the notion of deviation, or even deviance: the turn as a departure from the straight line, abandoning a stable trajectory in favour of uncertainty and crossroads. Like her fragmented narratives, the artist’s work is constructed in areas of confusion where fiction, ritual and documentary intertwine without hierarchy.

The virgins refer to female bodies, saturated with stories, injunctions and violence, caught in a constant tension between sacralisation and stigmatisation. Between the figures of the saint and the prostitute, these bodies, alternately idealised, controlled or condemned, assert a desiring and transgressive power, far from any passivity or objectification. The term also evokes virgin territory: the unknown as a space for projection and reinvention. “Virages Vierges” thus refers to those moments of transition when bodies, narratives, beliefs and constructions leave the beaten track to open up, in an irreverent and rebellious manner, other possible futures.

This large-scale monographic exhibition allows Pauline Curnier Jardin to present her practice through a selection of major works—most notably video installations and sculptures—as well as new productions. It reveals her phantasmagoric atmospheres, situated somewhere between theatre, cinema, and ritual, and structured around recurring themes: the fluid relationship between bodily vulnerability and power, the place of women in society, and forms of popular spirituality and syncretism.

For the creation of a new video installation, the artist drew inspiration from a clandestine cinema discovered in 2004 beneath the Trocadéro (near the Palais de Tokyo), nicknamed “les arènes de Chaillot” [Chaillot’s arenas]—a place where alternative forms of freedom could be invented. This site resonates deeply with her work, nourishing her attraction to liminal spaces, dissident practices, and narratives that escape established norms.

This project continues a long-term relationship between the Palais de Tokyo and the artist, who previously took part in the group exhibitions “Dynasty” (2010, with the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris) and “Antibodies” (2020).

The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, which will present a new version in autumn 2027.

The first monograph dedicated to Pauline Curnier Jardin’s work will be published in 2026, a collaboration between the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), and M HKA (Antwerp).