Épatez La Galerie !

Every year, Épatez La Galerie ! marks the beginning of summer and looks back on a season of projects and workshops carried out with the art center’s visitors. In this exhibition, the collective dimension holds a unique place: a multitude of short-lived come together at La Galerie throughout its programming. Children, teenagers, adults and babies take part in visits in tours and workshops designed by artists, mediation team, and collaborating partners. Some groups have formed around initiatives tied to the group exhibition Cat People. Des artistes et des chats and Camille Benarab-Lopez’s exhibition sous la sécheresse de la formule. Others came together during the residency dedicated to artistic and cultural education with artists Amine Benattabou, Élise Brion, Virginie Capizzi and Pierre Klein. Yet another group formed to record summer stories with Laura Burucoa.

This year, Épatez La Galerie ! offers a behind-the-scenes look at some of these projects. It showcases not only the resulting works but also some of the protocols, step-by-step guides, and session synopses. These programmatic sheets, now on display, can once again serve as a starting point for gestures and situations that anyone can reenact. Seven Thirty Till Nine (2012) by Cally Spooner¹ is also on view in the exhibition spaces of La Galerie. A protocol-based work activated for a single evening during Nuit Blanche 2026, its presence extends the questions that guide our daily activities with audiences: How can we design collective moments around artistic practices? How do protocols evolve? What experiences can arise from them? What can we convey from these?

Épatez La Galerie ! is part of the Global Education Project launched by the city of Noisy-le-Sec, which aims to implement the territory’s educational policy. This exhibition also reflects the city’s commitment to making arts and cultural education accessible to all.

¹ Work from the collection of the Frac Île-de-France, presented as part of the off-site program for the exhibition Le Syndrome de Bonnard, in partnership with the Nadia and Lili Boulanger Conservatory in Noisy-le-Sec.