Between atoms and particles, Laure Prouvost takes you on an unprecedented sensory journey. Beneath the glass roof of the Grand Palais, the artist presents a monumental work combining video, sculpture, sound, scent, and light, the result of two years of research into quantum physics. Laure Prouvost invites you to see the world differently.
Everything begins with a vertiginous question: “What might we feel when perceiving reality from a quantum perspective?”
Theorized a century ago, quantum physics describes the behavior of matter and energy at the scale of atoms and particles. It is based on probabilities rather than certainties and challenges our usual way of understanding the world. To develop this project, artist Laure Prouvost conducted two years of research with philosopher Tobias Rees and scientist Hartmut Neven. With access to a powerful quantum computer, she created images and sounds that reflect the sensitive and unpredictable nature of these systems.
At the entrance to the exhibition, a tunnel leads into a dazzling environment inhabited by The Beginning, a monumental kinetic sculpture. Animated by sound and light and composed of six limbs, it is at once omnipresent and evanescent, imposing and fragile, cosmic and earthly. At its center, a video titled We Felt A Star Dying connects us to matter in all its forms - living and non-living, natural and mechanical, from the infinitely small to the infinitely large.
Around it, whimsical meteorite-like elements, the Cute Bits (a pun on qubits, the units of quantum computing), are suspended from the glass roof and evoke the quantum phenomenon of entanglement, which links two particles instantaneously regardless of the distance between them. Some take the form of helmets, inside which one can hear their voices and smell their metallic, mineral scent.
Spatialized sound, filaments brushing against bodies, dazzling spotlights, an enveloping cushion on which to lie down and watch the video, platforms and sandbanks all act as sensory stimuli, immersing visitors in this expanded environment. Laure Prouvost reveals an interconnected world in which “we are one,” where “we are we.”
This exhibition is adapted from WE FELT A STAR DYING, originally commissioned by LAS Art Foundation, Berlin, and co-commissioned by OGR Torino in 2025
Curatorship
Curator: Barbara Kroher - Head of Exhibition Programming at the GrandPalaisRmn
Associate Curator: Carly Whitefield - Curator LAS Art Foundation
Other information
About Laure Prouvost
Laure Prouvost (b. 1876, Lieuméconnu, France) is one of the components of a vast network, living and working in the Northern Eurosphere. She describes her artistic practice as an act of translation, a sensory elaboration of emotions, perceptions, and suspended moments.
In her films and multimedia installations, Laure Prouvost develops inventive logics and associations to create complex narrative worlds. Her resolutely personal approach to storytelling is imbued with imagination, humor, wordplay, sensuality, whimsical elements, and poetic echoes. She invites us to question our usual codes and structures and to let ourselves be carried away by other spatial and temporal currents.
Her works are featured in prestigious private and public collections. Numerous exhibitions have been dedicated to her work around the world. She was the recipient of the Max Mara Prize for Women in 2011 and the Turner Prize in 2013, and represented France at the Venice Biennale in 2019.
Monday through Sunday, 10 am to 7:30 pm
Nave (North)
More information
Access: 7 Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008 Paris
Nef - Entrance Gabrielle Chanel
Accessibility
This exhibition is accessible to people with limited mobility.
Prices
Full rate: €8
Reduced rate: €5 Abonnement holders, 18-25 years old, students up to 30 years old, large families
Free - 18 years old, jobseekers, visitors with disabilities, GrandPalais Pass holders...
Open ticket: €10 Access without reservation on the date and time of your choice until July 12
