Kennedy Yanko and Ma Kelu Take Over Cité de l'architecture in Paris

Kennedy Yanko's sculptures and Ma Kelu's paintings are infiltrating the Cité de l'architecture in Paris, creating a dialogue between contemporary art and heritage for one season. Yanko's works, made from acrylic paint poured on the studio floor, dried, cut into flexible skins, and draped over reclaimed metal frames, are installed in the gallery of casts, facing Gothic portals and their stone drapery. They converse with these folds and with the reverse of structures: the armatures, the rebar, all the technical proliferation that a building normally hides from view. Metal and paint merge like flesh and mechanics, in a register close to Cronenberg's universe. A few rooms away, in the mural painting gallery, Ma Kelu hangs his canvases among medieval frescoes. This Shanghai painter, founder of the No Name group outside official frameworks in the 1970s, is exhibiting in France for the first time. His latest series is called Ada, from Bruce Lee's battle cry: a painting triggered without prior reflection, jagged monochrome forms floating on vast untouched reserves. The unsettling proximity arises because the fresco figures also float on plain skies. The museum of casts awakens for a flamboyant season. The exhibition runs from October 16, 2026 to January 3, 2027 at Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, 1 place du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris, M° Trocadéro (6/9). Open daily except Tuesday 11am-7pm, Thursday until 9pm. Admission: €13, reduced €10.