Echo Delay Reverb : American Art, French Thought

Throughout the 20th century, thinkers, activists and poets in the French-speaking world transgressed genres and changed perspectives on the contemporary world. However, beyond and sometimes before their recognition in France, their ideas were translated in the United States and used to create tools for a critical view of institutions, art and society, challenging social, aesthetic and linguistic norms and opening up new ways of seeing and acting. While the flagship concept of French Theory was defined in the 1990s to evoke the enthusiastic reception that the United States reserved for authors such as Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida, other figures, such as Suzanne and Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Maryse Condé, Édouard Glissant and Monique Wittig, have been instrumental in the fields of art, postcolonial studies, feminism and gender studies. This book traces the history of the circulation of ideas, their resonance and appropriation by several generations of artists across the Atlantic, extending the eponymous exhibition conceived by Naomi Beckwith at the Palais de Tokyo.

About the book:

Available from 17 October 2025 at the Palais de Tokyo bookshop and in bookstores.

Copublished with Éditions B42

39€ (France)
240 pages, format 19 x 25 cm, language: French
ISBN 978-2-494983-39-7

Edited by Naomi Beckwith et Elvan Zabunyan

Texts by Naomi Beckwith, Emma Bigé, Audrey Célestine, Pauline Clochec, François Cusset, Aria Dean, Guillaume Désanges, Éric Fassin, Jackqueline Frost, Florian Gaité, Emmanuel Guy, Catherine Malabou, Sophie Mendelsohn, Émilie Notéris, Mathieu Potte-Bonneville, Camille Robcis, Tiphaine Samoyault, Adam Shatz and Mawena Yehouessi.

Interviews of Judith Butler by Elisabeth Lebovici, Huey Copeland by Elvan Zabunyan, Renée Green by Elvan Zabunyan.

With works by Allora & Calzadilla, Laurie Anderson, Siah Armajani, Firelei Báez, Lynda Benglis, Tom Burr, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Paul Chan, Jimmy DeSana, Vivienne Dick, Mark Dion, Torkwase Dyson, Hal Fischer, Andrea Fraser, Coco Fusco, Charles Gaines, Ellen Gallagher, Andrea Geyer, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Dan Graham, Renée Green, Adler Guerrier, Hans Haacke, David Hammons, K8 Hardy, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, Sky Hopinka, Juliana Huxtable, Char Jeré, Joan Jonas, Mike Kelley, Mary Kelly, Caroline Kent, Glenn Ligon, James Luna, Tala Madani, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Julie Mehretu, Meleko Mokgosi, Wangechi Mutu, Lorraine O’Grady, Pope.L, Walid Raad, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Martha Rosler, Cameron Rowland, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Allan Sekula, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Cindy Sherman, Amy Sillman, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, Oscar Tuazon, Fred Wilson, Cici Wu and Anicka Yi.