Simulacres at Les Magasins Généraux: Where Does Reality End?

The exhibition 'Simulacres' at Les Magasins Généraux in Pantin, France, brings together nineteen artists to explore the blurring line between reality and representation. Running until September 27, 2026, the show features works in hyperrealism, optical illusion, photography, installation, video, and artificial intelligence. The exhibition posits that art never merely reproduces the world; it always involves selection and transformation, and here that transformation becomes the subject itself. Works question when a representation begins to substitute for its model, such as a photograph documenting something that never existed or an AI-generated image appearing credible without physical reality. The show includes artists like Carlos Cruz-Diez, whose color alters visual experience, and Tony Matelli and Arinze Stanley, whose precise representations momentarily obscure their constructed nature. It also features Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, Lou Fauroux, Maria Mavropoulou, and Bill Posters, expanding the inquiry to new forms of simulation. Rather than warning against false appearances, the exhibition highlights uncertainty as a rich artistic subject, freeing creation from notions of true and false and emphasizing subjective perception.