Exhibition Éclats du rire

Exhibition Tour & Themes

Spread across 5,000 m² and the three levels of Le Tripostal, drawn from the collections of the 22 FRAC, the exhibition has been designed as a thematic and immersive journey, guiding the eye from the personal to the political, from self-directed laughter to an uncompromising critique of our society.

A first chapter opens with a face-to-face encounter: where humor acts as an armor or a mirror. Artists use their own bodies, image, and identity as territories for experimentation and derision. Through cross-dressing, makeup, and self-deprecation, they boldly challenge notions of seriousness, gender, and social status.

Finally, this chapter brings these approaches into dialogue with the pioneering, feminist, and subversive commitments of Orlan, Martha Wilson, or Esther Ferrer — proving that putting oneself on stage remains the most direct and impactful way to challenge the audience. 

The rigorous geometries of François Morellet play with Kama Sutra positions, echoing nearby the international insolence of Maurizio Cattelan, who shakes up art world snobbery with gestures as hilarious as they are biting. Pauline Ghersi‘s sharp gaze on the art world and Aurore Le Duc‘s score-settling complete the desacralization of the institution. 

This wave of derision also passes through a thorough hijacking of language, words, and imagery: from the text-based works of John Giorno to the proverbs of Annette Messager or Jean-Luc Verna, from the endless anadiplosis of Claude Closky to the distinctly British humor of Glen Baxter. Finally, the art of reinventing everyday objects expresses itself through joyful — sometimes poetic, sometimes cynical — subversions by Fabrice Hyber, Laure Prouvost, and Wim Delvoye. Artists short-circuit and reinvent them, such as the Saboosh by François Curlet, the unpredictable performances of Roman Signer, the repainted fire extinguisher by Bertrand Lavier, or the Kangaroo Tote Bag by General Idea.

Reaching the climax of the exhibition, laughter becomes resolutely political, incisive, and societal, forcefully questioning the balance of the world. After poking fun at oneself, then at the codes of the art world, the artist seizes humor as a weapon of resistance and social critique. Through satire, biting irony, and the absurd, the works presented here dissect the flaws, tensions, and paradoxes of our time.

This sense of tension comes strikingly to life in Batoul S’Himi‘s World Pressure pressure cooker, a powerful metaphor for contemporary geopolitical tensions. The biting, monumental irreverence of Paul McCarthy and Peter Saul interacts with the corrosive, graphic universe of Roland Topor, the saturated pop compositions of Erró, or the history-laden torn posters of Raymond Hains.

Facing the drifts of our societal systems, artists take a vital step sideways: Julien Prévieux ironically subverts the absurdities of work culture and technology, while the duo Peter Fischli & David Weiss explores the banality of daily life with false philosophical innocence. Hélène Delprat‘s Big Bad Wolf near Paul McCarthy‘s Spaghetti Man, along with the cultural hybridizations of Bruno Peinado and the baroque collisions of Carlos Aires, finish breaking down our certainties and established powers. Laughter becomes the vector for essential awareness — a final space of freedom in the face of the world’s complexity.

While humor may seem trivial, the artists assembled here convincingly prove otherwise: to laugh is to resist. It means refusing resignation, disrupting certainties, and keeping alive the critical space that any democratic society must preserve. As you leave this exhibition, we hope you will carry away not only a smile, but also that fresh, insightful perspective that art alone can offer.