Lassana Sarre: Globale Inversion Inversion

At the Palais de Tokyo, painter Lassana Sarre presents a project focusing on the teams responsible for the art centre’s safety and security. Working across the entrance, exhibition spaces and control room, these staff members welcome visitors, monitor the premises and oversee the protection of artworks, visitors and employees.

Over several months, Sarre spent time with the security teams, observing their routines and daily activities. The project follows an earlier work developed during a visit to the United States, where the artist engaged in conversations with security staff at a New York museum.

Wall paintings and a looped sound installation in the corridor bring together fragments inspired by the lives and working environment of the Palais de Tokyo teams. Shared meals, conversations, periods of waiting and the sounds of their daily routines become material for the project.

Sarre’s paintings draw on references to history painting, socialist realism and allegory, while incorporating memories of his childhood in Vitry and influences from artists and places encountered over the years. Figures and scenes connected to the security teams are integrated directly into the architecture of the Palais de Tokyo.

The project brings together painting, sound and the museum environment to draw attention to the people whose daily work contributes to the functioning of the art centre, while exploring the relationship between observation, public space and access to art.