Rayane Mcirdi's First Paris Institutional Solo Show Opens at Frac Île-de-France, Le Plateau

Rayane Mcirdi's first solo exhibition in a Parisian institution, "Joyeuse retraite papa," occupies the entire Plateau space at Frac Île-de-France for five months, running from 24 September 2026 to 21 February 2027. The show centers on a film Mcirdi made of his father's retirement after forty years of factory work, but the artist has dismantled the film rather than presenting it as a conventional screening: chapters are distributed throughout the galleries, with scenes echoing from one room to another, so that visitors never truly sit down. The subject could fit into three lines of a social documentary, yet Mcirdi's approach transforms it. Since his earliest films, he has worked from stories, memories, and anecdotes gathered from his family and residents of Asnières-sur-Seine and Gennevilliers, where he grew up, restaging them on the boundary between documentary and fiction with the people concerned playing themselves. The camera stays at shoulder height and lets things unfold. The result is rare material: trajectories linking Algeria and France without commentary, tenderness, solidarity, nostalgia, and above all what remains unsaid. The Quinzaine des cinéastes had spotted him in 2024. Céline Poulin curated the exhibition. Admission is free, and the venue is open Wednesday to Sunday, 14h–19h, with the first Wednesday of each month until 21h.