View of the exhibition 'Virages Vierges' ('Virgin Turns') by Pauline Curnier Jardin at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, April 2, 2026. AURÉLIEN MOLE/ELLEN DE BRUIJNE PROJECTS & CHERTLÜDDE/ADAGP 2026
It is difficult to pick the new season's headliner at the Palais de Tokyo, "Normes Corps," which opened on Thursday, April 2. The program features French artists Pauline Curnier Jardin and Benoît Piéron alongside British artists Jesse Darling and Cathy de Monchaux, and brings together a group of artists united by their particular focus on physical and mental vulnerability.
Guillaume Désanges, the president of the institution and the driving force behind the initiative, described their approaches as showcasing "the subversive power" of fragility in an era that prizes "performance, speed, autonomy, productivity or self-transcendence," while asserting, in contrast, "difference, dysfunction or interdependence."
The result is the outline of an aesthetic "that broadens the frameworks of representation and escapes the constraints of beauty or taste." In parallel, the institution aims to be as accessible as it is inclusive – with access ramps integrated into every stairway of the exhibition spaces and sign language screens available.
