Exhibition: Alter ego

Scientific discoveries challenge us to consider the ever closer links between humans and animals, whether in terms of the cognitive, predictive, organizational, relational or empathic capacities they are capable of, or the states of distress or suffering they experience. Are we their equals in the living world to which we belong? What new symbolic, social and legal place do we give them in our societies?

Rather than taking an uncomfortable position in the lively and divisive debates on this subject, we have selected works by artists who have taken up the theme of animality.

Whether they are critical, polemical or humorous, whether they show empathy in their turn, whether they upset us, whether they serve as a breeding ground for disturbances or assertions of identity or gender, works of art are there to confront us with worldviews that shake up codes, and offer us openings and pathways into the imaginary. They also enable us to confront complex realities through images that are strange yet so familiar to our own questioning.