Mungo Thomson — Monument : Bronze-wrapped packaging and a candle film at Lafayette Anticipations

The everyday life takes on significance with Monument, the exhibition by Mungo Thomson at Lafayette Anticipations, in the Marais district of Paris, running from October 21 to November 29, 2026. Through two works, the artist invites us to look differently at the packaging we throw away and the images we flip through. Why give them a place in a contemporary art foundation? Because these elements, however ordinary, tell us something about our lives.

In the courtyard of Lafayette Anticipations, Snowman sets the tone. This monumental sculpture borrows its form from the cardboard tubes used for postal shipments. But the material changes: here, everything is in bronze. What is usually meant to protect an object during transit becomes the very thing that commands attention. The choice of a material tied to sculpture and permanence gives new weight to these disposable wrappings.

• To be read
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• Yu Nishimura: the Towards the Sea exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations
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The other work appears on screen. Time Life Volume 15. Monument to a Period of Time in Which I Lived belongs to a series of stop-motion films, a frame-by-frame animation technique. For these videos, Thomson assembles thousands of reproductions taken from books. This fifteenth installment features candles scrolling by, found in both religious publications and in art-history or design volumes. Brought together through editing, these images from different contexts create a sequence of flashes.

The title Monument thus takes on a new meaning: what will become of our most banal habits? The next time packaging sits by the door, or a dusty old book gathers dust, perhaps it will deserve a second look.

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