Pauline Curnier Jardin — Virages Vierges — Palais de Tokyo — Exhibition — Slash Paris

In about 2 months: April 3 → September 13, 2026

With Virgin Turns, Pauline Curnier Jardin explores the idea of deviation: the turn as a break from predetermined paths and an opening onto uncertainty. Her work unfolds in zones of disturbance where fiction, ritual, and documentary intertwine, producing fragmented and unruly narratives.

The figure of the virgin refers both to female bodies shaped by injunctions and violence and to the idea of virgin territory—an unknown space open to projection and reinvention. Caught between sacralization and stigmatization, these bodies assert a desiring, transgressive power, far removed from passivity.

This major solo exhibition brings together key works and new productions—including video installations and sculptures—revealing fantasmagorical worlds at the intersection of theater, cinema, and ritual. The artist’s recurring concerns emerge with force: the tension between vulnerability and bodily power, the place of women, and forms of popular spirituality.

For a new video installation, Curnier Jardin draws inspiration from a former clandestine cinema discovered beneath the Trocadéro, known as the “Chaillot arenas,” a subterranean site emblematic of dissident practices. The project continues a long-standing relationship between the artist and the Palais de Tokyo and is developed in collaboration with the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, which will present an adapted version in 2027.