Immerse yourself in a universe where digital art, artificial intelligence and contemporary utopias meet to rethink our relationship with the world. The exhibition Les Illusions retrouvées - Nouvelles utopies à l'ère numérique will be on show at CENTQUATRE-Paris from October 11, 2025 to January 11, 2026, featuring some thirtyimmersive and interactive works that blur the boundaries between the real and the virtual.
At a time whenhypertechnology andartificial intelligence are transforming our lives, the exhibition offers an immersive, sensory journey to the heart of hybrid worlds blending art, nature and technology. Visitors will discover voices metamorphosed into soundscapes, painting figures that come to life and sing, and plants capable of generating digital images. These contemporary illusions question the links between the human, the living and the machine, and sketch out the contours of artistic utopias for the 21st century.
Organized into five thematic chapters, the exhibition opens with L'Île d'Utopie, a kind of poetic village at the heart of the CENTQUATRE, which summarizes the major themes of the tour. Under the hall, you can walk alongside artificial intelligences that transform climate data into visual creations, and revive the forgotten female computer scientists of the twentieth century in a series of portraits on metallic paper.
Then, in Renaissances, you plunge into retrospective imaginaries, from the XVIᵉ century to the beginnings of the Internet.Anne Bourrassé and Mounir Ayache 's installation Désert de Retz II extends the mysteries of an 18th-century philosophical garden into a critical space between democratic dream and digital illusion. You'll also be intrigued by Le Mégamix du Louvre-Lens, a visual and sound work byInook, where masterpieces come alive to the rhythm of timeless hits.
The third section, A New World, offers an alternative vision of the future, where technology becomes a tool for symbiosis with the living. Here, you can create pollinating insects, transform your voice into a luminous ballet, or interact with a plant to generate sounds and images thanks to Plant Being. The works on display feature artificial biodiversity, augmented ecosystems and post-human beings, in an atmosphere conducive to both contemplation and collective experimentation.
In Speculative Evolution by Marc Lee, you design new modified species. With Rewild byIsmaël Joffroy Chandoutis, you enter the story of a young gamer who confronts the virtual with the real on a farm in Normandy. These installations raise questions for you: what place should digital technology have in our relationship with the living?
The penultimate section, Le Cantique des quantiques, lets you experience quantum physics through sounds, videos and installations. Far from technical explanations, this section connects you to an invisible but omnipresent science. Quantum Fluctuations by Markos Kay, for example, transforms proton collisions into abstract paintings in motion. Libby Heaney's QX Product Launch parodies the techno-optimistic rhetoric of big business, highlighting the ideological excesses of the race for progress.
Sensation quantique, a collective work resulting from a dialogue between artists and scientists, immerses you in a space where the strangeness of the infinitely small is felt. The installations don't seek to explain, but to make you feel the vertigo of the quantum.
The tour closes with D A T A S K Y, an installation where you reconnect with sky and light. Valentine Maurice proposes a space that slows down time and restores biological rhythms. Light and weather are captured live to generate constantly evolving sensory ambiances, far removed from standardized digital stimuli.
This last section is an invitation to slow down, to feel differently, to dream of a future where technology and nature no longer clash, but complement each other.
Whether you're curious about science fiction, passionate aboutdigital art, interested inartificial intelligence, or simply looking for an immersive experience with family, friends or solo, this exhibition opens the doors to a parallel, critical and sensitive world.
Les illusions retrouvées are not intended to deceive. They question, awaken, move, and reveal a fresh perspective on our times, its hopes, its excesses and its possibilities. It's quite a big exhibition too, spread out in several rooms all around the hall, offering you an unparalleled immersion in the different experiments, all independent of each other. Take your time if you want to see it all - it's well worth it!
It's also an exhibition for the general public, even if the subjects covered are not necessarily accessible to everyone. But the idea is to get visitors to understand how digital technology andAI are involved in art, to serve rather than supplant it. There's nothing divisive or shocking about it either: everyone is welcome, and some works are interactive, asking you to participate (just a little). An exhibition worth discovering without delay... So drop in for a visit!
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Dates and Opening Time
From October 11, 2025 to January 11, 2026
Location
Le Centquatre - Paris - 104
5 Rue Curial
75019 Paris 19
Access
Riquet metro station
Prices
Tarif réduit: €8
Plein tarif: €10
Official website
www.104.fr
