Grotte Stellaire: From Lascaux To The Palais De Tokyo

Buried deep in the basement of the newly reopened Palais de Tokyo, home to our very first international event, we discover a projection room taken over by Julien Salaud. For the Triennale, the French artist settled in a room with a few strings, some nails, and a considerable dose of ultraviolet light. With Grotte Stellaire, he presents a tribute to the primitive paintings that can be found in the caves of Lascaux and Chauvet.

Educated as an anthropologist, Julien Salaud is working to redefine animal cartography in his own style, which incorporates imaginary beasts and heavenly creatures. His previous works also question the relationship between man and nature, as well as our perspective on endangered species. He appropriated taxidermy techniques and adapted them into the world of art, offering us a new vision of the animal kingdom while confronting its iconic representation in the history of civilization.

The Grotte Stellaire (Stellar Cave) deals with the ancestral fascination that the first men had for stars and the mystical power of the animal kingdom. These string drawings bring us back to the experience of a planetarium, where the ceiling shows us a sky we rarely see. Like beautiful constellations, these galloping beasts seem to escape invisible predators from an infinite galaxy.