Virages Vierges, 2026

Pauline Curnier Jardin, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR, Apr – Sept 2026

The exhibition Virages Vierges (Virgin Turns) takes as its starting point the notion of deviation: the turn as a departure from the straight line, an opening to divergent paths. Like Pauline Curnier Jardin’s fragmented narratives, this project creates areas of turmoil, virgin territories to explore and reinvent oneself. The “virgins” also symbolize female bodies saturated with injunctions and violence. Oscillating between idealized, controlled, or condemned figures, these bodies assert a desiring and transgressive power. Bringing together a selection of recent or specially produced works, “Virgin Turns” refers to moments of abandoning the beaten path. With irreverence and rebelliousness, they open the way to other possibilities.
The exhibition, with its sinuous scenographic and thematic curves, explores many rituals, characters and people, landscapes, periods and projects dear to Pauline Curnier Jardin.
The exhibition features the artist’s latest film, created in collaboration with the Feel Good Cooperative, Le Colonne della Colombo (2026) — which draws its inspiration from the 2023 performance of the same name.
The film is presented within L’antre ou Nuestro Antro (2026): the installation – designed in collaboration with Rachel Garcia emerged from a whirlwind of references: underground cisterns, the clandestine cinema of the ‘Mexicaine de perforation’ beneath the Trocadéro, the Palais de Tokyo – which was meant to become a ‘Palais de l’Image’ (Palace of the Image) and then, of course, the roman neighbourhood of EUR and its monumental Fascist architecture, but also the hidden, utterly kitsch homes of Rome’s underworld.

The exhibition layout was designed in collaboration with Rachel Garcia.

Curator: Daria de Beauvais
Exhibition assistant: Inès Fodil
Production manager: Raphaële Mas
Technical manager: Diane Lagorce
Project manager (Studio PCJ): Martina Silvi

Pauline Curnier Jardin, view of the exhibition Virages Vierges, Palais de Tokyo, 2026
Photo credit: Aurélien Mole
Courtesy of the artist, Ellen de Bruijne Projects (Amsterdam) & ChertLüdde (Berlin) © Adagp, Paris, 2026