Make way for the world
When: 08.10.2026 00:00
Where: 48.853913, 2.357203
Organizer: Admin
Office of the Commissioner of the European Communities: Ch
Taking the Cité internationale des arts as a starting point, Making the world a place engages a reflection on how contemporary artists approach the promises, contradictions and legacies of cultural internationalism, namely a form of exchange, action and solidarity that transcends national structures.
Bringing together 16 artists from 15 different countries (in residence between 2003 and today), Make way for the world presents this relationship at the borders, to what is called the international, not as an immutable value, but as a reality lived unequally, especially by the artists themselves: for many a daily process of negotiation, translation and the quest for hospitality, sometimes linked to the experience of forced displacement; for others a source of opportunities, but also of dependency, as well as a promise that can give the artists powerful guidance, without ever allowing them to escape entirely the political and cultural asymmetries of the world around them.
While the International City of Arts was conceived during the inter-war period and was born after the Second World War, in a Europe marked by war and genocide, its founders proposed another horizon: that where artistic exchanges could create forms of proximity and relationship that the nation-states had failed to maintain in previous decades. By its name, "Cité internationale des arts", emphasis is placed on the place itself as an international exception with its own codes, rhythms and temporary communities. It was conceived as a city in the city, a place that could suspend, if only partially, the hierarchies of the world of nation states beyond its walls. The City was, however, inseparable from a broader French cultural ambition. In this way, it has always carried two contradictory impulses: a desire to open up to the world and a mission to place Paris at its centre. This tension inspired the title of the exhibition and the choice of participating artists, and raised the question of power relations and access to mobility.
Some artists offer horizontal forms of gathering: carnival and caravan as metaphors for exchange and welcome, singing as a promise of return in the face of annihilation, or matrilinearity as an alternative social structure. Other projects remind us that art is a temporary refuge from mourning and trauma, a suture of physical and symbolic wounds, or a herald of hidden stories that resurface.
With the artists: Louidgi Beltrame, Emma Charrin, Kari Ikonen, Young Joo Lee, Olia Fedorova, Thomas Henriksson, Gustavo Ciríaco, João Gonçalo Lopes, Ola Hassanain, Himat M. Ali, Zbyněk Baladrán, Hussein Nassereddine, Taysir Batniji, Cristina Escobar, Gluklya, Wendie Zahibo.
Exhibition from 8 October 2026 to 16 January 2027
Vernissage – Wednesday 7 October 2026, from 6pm to 9pm
Wednesdays from 2pm to 9pm (nocturnal)
Thursday to Saturday from 2pm to 7pm
Gallery
Marais website
Free entry
Tags: exhibition, art, gallery
Source: https://www.paris.fr/evenements/les-voix-se-levent-118181
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