Frac Île-de-France les Réserves Romainville
Set designed by rita elhajj and régis badgassarian.
Curated by Céline Poulin et Alicia Reymond
The exhibition’s title, “Old Shells & Young Reefs,” evokes the metaphor of the body as a shell destined for entropy, potentially challenged by beautiful corals that might replace it or, on the contrary, revive it.
Physical and psychological bodies—whether real or imaginary—develop in response to demands and necessities related to performativity, adaptability, or even medical treatments: technological advances enable survival as well as improved competitiveness, not only in professional sports but also, more broadly, in all spheres that are part of this global system.
Science fiction has anticipated these themes and continues to invent bodies—real, augmented, or fictional—that are subtly situated in relation to one another as well as to various ecosystems. The title also alludes to the fact that, contrary to popular belief, science fiction often draws on very ancient stories, whose profound imprints on the collective imagination are difficult to pinpoint—a factor that contributes to its skillful capacity for decentring and, once again, regeneration.
The way the works are presented and interact is the result of a scenographic interpretation of American writer Ursula K. Le Guin’s “basket fiction” theory[1], transformed into a structural reflection that constructs narratives of assemblages, supports, structures, articulations, shifts, imbalances, and tensions. This scenography, conceived by Rita Elhajj and Régis Badgassarian, invites visitors to rethink the role of central, rigid elements that are inseparable from the architectures they support—such as load-bearing pillars—while highlighting how the works retain their own autonomy, both within this scenographic framework and within the institution itself.
Like a reversible bag or two phases of the same nonlinear story, the exhibition can be viewed from the Plateau to the Storage Areas or vice versa, and visitors are invited to follow whatever paths of interpretation they choose—by reading, looking, listening, touching, and sitting on whatever is available— in short, to experience their surroundings in their own way.
Photo credits © Martin Argyroglo