Immersive exhibition and performances in a former brothel in Le Marais.
Installation, Performance, Dance, Music, Theater, Reading, Exhibition, Video Explicit content: not recommended for family audiences On the occasion of Nuit Blanche 2026, the Reflet Machine collective takes over 10 rue des Ecouffes with an immersive exhibition inspired by the history of the site, a former brothel that is now a space for artistic experimentation. The exhibition is rooted in the memory and legacy of this building with its distinctive architecture. Semi-enclosed, semi-open spaces that make it possible to look without being seen. The remnants of the brothel - peepholes, translucent stained glass, frescoes, woodwork, mosaics, mirrors, room keys - are revealed through the videos, installations, and performances presented in the exhibition. Drawing on archives about maisons de rendez-vous from the early 20th century, and particularly the one at 10 rue des Ecouffes, Reflet Machine imagines a contemporary rewriting of this place, where memory, history, and fantasy intersect. The invited artists question representations of the body, sexuality, identities, and desire. Visual artists Maty Biayenda, Gaëlle Choisne, Lou Masduraud, and Oihana Ospital revisit the history of the place through installations: peepholes, basement windows, chandeliers, curtains, photographs, red lanterns, or viewers, produced from reinterpreted archives. These deliberately ambiguous artifacts disturb perception and contribute to the overall narrative. Through her photographs, Romy Alizée questions the prejudices surrounding sex work. Her works, both introspective and political, shift the gaze from fantasy to lived experience. Through a writing-based practice, Selim-a Atallah Chettaoui offers a decolonial and intersectional reading of the archives on the history of the site. Iel responds to early-20th-century press articles that cast an exoticizing and racist gaze on this neighborhood and its immigrant population. The films by Amélie Cabocel and Julien Munschy in collaboration with the Bal des Putes, Nans Laborde Jourdàa, and Mathilde Soares-Pereira explore the hidden side of erotic spaces that are usually invisible, human, social, and emotional relationships, and representations of the body through documentary and fictional works. A performative section led by the cabaret Les Moches extends the questions of embodiment and gaze. The performers become mediators between the memory of the place and its imagination, reactivating stories that are often silent, especially those of women and sexual minorities, past and present. The visitor is placed in an in-between space: between history and its simulacrum, between reality and its projection. The exhibition will be on view until the end of July 2026 and will be punctuated by events, a round table, and a screening. Find the detailed program at www.refletmachine.com . Curated by Ronan Canal, Robin Maison-Marcheux, Clémence Oger, Romain Rampillon.
Source: paris.fr — photo: Reflet machine