France 2026

Title: Comme Saturne
Commissioner: Institut français, operator of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the French Ministry of Culture
Curator: Myriam Ben Salah
Exhibitor: Yto Barrada

The exhibition “Comme Saturne” explores the cosmological imagination associated with Saturn, the planet of melancholy and slow thought. Artist Yto Barrada extends this theme to rites and myths, guided by linguistic interplay between multiple languages. The project follows a process of experimentation based on association and constraint, where textiles, chromatic research, and literary references serve as creative levers.

The title references the phrase “Like Saturn, the revolution devours its children,” spoken by Pierre-Victurnien Vergniaud during the French Revolution. This concept connects to “dévoré”, a textile finishing technique where acid eats away material, providing a starting point for Barrada’s research. The Pavilion is structured as a suite, using sequences and repetitions. At the threshold, a goatskin kite symbolically links heaven and earth. The exhibition proposes a tool for poetic survival, navigating the instability of the world through a blend of derision and lucidity.