Marc-Olivier Wahler's Six-Year Tenure at Palais de Tokyo Examined

Christophe Kihm analyzes the exhibition program of Marc-Olivier Wahler, who leaves the Palais de Tokyo in late January after six years as director. Wahler's approach was influenced by Swiss figures Jacques Hainard and Harald Szeemann, emphasizing thematic exhibitions as instruments for understanding the present. His program explored the shift from a 'window vision' to a multi-dimensional space-time, inaugurated by Gianni Motti's 'The Big Crunch' and the twin exhibitions 'Cinq Milliards d'années' and 'Une seconde une année.' The program operated on alternating temporal regimes and included carte blanche exhibitions for artists like Ugo Rondinone, Jeremy Deller, Adam McEwen, and John Armleder, framed as 'exposer son cerveau.' Kihm argues that Wahler's model positions the exhibition as both inquiry and science of the present, and as a world in itself.