“It is a retrospective exhibition: it speaks about a collective of 20 photographers and their work over the past 20 years. But it is also prospective, because it raises a question: what will the world look like, starting tomorrow?” With these words, Michel Slomka, scenographer of “Unmaking Remaking Dreaming” (Défaire Refaire Rêver, in French) and a member of the Myop agency, welcomes the public to the Carré de Baudouin. And while our era is unsettled—marked by bioclimatic, social, and political crises—while tensions rise and threaten international agreements, while artists know no more than the rest of us what lies ahead, “as a collective, we reflect together on these thorny questions and consider what is possible,” Michel Slomka continues.
Following “My Eyes. Patient Objects” (Mes Yeux, Objets Patients), an exhibition-screening unveiled at the Rencontres d’Arles in the summer of 2025, the installation currently presented in the pavilion of Paris’s 20th arrondissement approaches Myop’s archives with renewed energy. “We work with a state of the world, and documentary photography can sometimes be depressing. Lucidity is important, but it must not lead to discouragement. We want to summon enthusiasm, the desire to believe that together, we can overcome obstacles,” explains the scenographer. Across the two floors of the Carré de Baudouin, the prints form long friezes, crossing formats and themes. Neither mounted nor framed, they are spread directly on the walls in an assemblage that, for Myop, is synonymous with freedom.
At the same time, and to deepen immersion within 20 years of archives, 20 totems are scattered throughout the space, topped with books—each devoted to one of Myop’s photographers. A way of (re)discovering a specific project, or of wandering through each individual universe. So many tools pointing toward a way forward: in a world where tensions translate into regressive policies, where crises emerge and intertwine, we must act together, think together, and rebuild through collectivity.
A political response to the future
From one floor to the next, it is through sheer number that Myop’s photographers manage to seize our attention. On the walls, subjects multiply, their plurality imposing a pause on the gaze—a pause that prevents passivity. First come the makeshift dwellings—tents and cabins—spreading across the ground floor, a reminder of migratory tensions. An opening choice that is far from incidental for Michel Slomka: “This fragile habitat is made from the debris the world leaves us. These architectural forms, whether imposed or chosen, push us to invent new models. It is a political response to the future,” he states.
In the third and final room, portraits welcome us—and look back at us. Everywhere, women’s faces, close-ups, eyes fixed on the camera. Their gaze follows us to the corner of a wall, where a photograph by Alain Keller depicting a banner bearing the word “Libertad” underscores the collective’s commitment. Then faces give way to embraces, to bodies connecting, entwining in a loving impulse or an instinctive act of support. Emotion is palpable; humanity is photographed in all its vulnerability. Suddenly, context loses its importance. What matters is the moment, the strength of union, the visceral need for contact. Captions, moreover, are absent from the walls, as if to leave visitors the space to reconstruct a narrative of their own.
Opposite, curiously, horses and dogs fill the prints, a kind of nod to those “cute” images we cannot help but take. “Animals have become the domain of the childlike. Yet dogs work, and horses do too. Horses were also among the first motifs represented on cave walls,” notes the scenographer, subtly pointing to the contradictions between affection and the way we treat our environment. “Today, they question us: if you share this bond with us, why not extend it to the rest of the living world?” he continues. With “Unmaking Remaking Dreaming”, Myop thus signs a retrospective shaped as a request: let us remember our human condition and, together, rise again.
The exhibition “Défaire Refaire Rêver” is on view at Carré de Baudouin in Paris until March 16, 2026.
