The Beat Goes On! : Free Exhibition Celebrating Clubbing Culture at Quai de la Photo

With DJs spinning tracks, dancing into the early hours, and lively parties lasting until dawn, nightclubs and discos have been central to the city’s vibrant nightlife for decades. However, beneath the glittering dance floors and shimmering disco balls lie underlying struggles and realities rooted in an intersectional culture that unites queer, Latin, and African American communities.

The Quai de la Photo draws us into the realm of nightlife with a new, one-of-a-kind exhibition running from January 9 to April 24, 2026. The free exhibition, The Beat Goes On!, showcases over a hundred photographs and videos captured between 1970 and today. The floating art center spotlights both French and international artists and scenes, offering a diverse portrait of club culture today.

The exhibition is organized into several sections, inviting visitors to explore the work of French, Canadian, American, British, and Brazilian photographers. Spanning from disco fashion to electronic scenes, the timeline unfolds through striking images that capture changing eras. As you move through the exhibits, you'll witness communities discovering themselves, exploring new expressions of freedom, coming together, and evolving over time.

Emerging in the 1970s, club culture provided marginalized communities with a safe haven amid segregation, homophobia, the AIDS crisis, urban upheavals, and migration challenges.

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Within these dimly lit spaces — whether on dance floors, in clubs, warehouses, plazas, or abandoned lots — new identities have emerged and found their voice. Communities have redefined their image and their relationship with the body, and gender. Club culture stands as a space of resistance and counterculture.

The Quai de la Photo exhibition aims to tell this rich and diverse story—an inclusive and liberating history. The route also highlights the work of numerous artists, performers, dancers, and DJs.

An exhibition to explore for free at the start of 2026. A lively, festive lineup complements this exhibition—find out more on the art center's website.