Prepare to experience art like never before! The Bourse de Commerce in Paris is set to unveil "Tisser l'espace" ("Weaving Space"), the first-ever French retrospective of Lygia Pape, a groundbreaking figure of the Brazilian avant-garde. Running from September 10, 2025, to February 23, 2026, this exhibition is a must-see event within the Brazil-France 2025 Season.
Pape's work transcends traditional art forms, inviting viewers into a sensory journey that blurs the lines between installation, abstraction, and performance. The centerpiece, Ttéia 1, C, is a breathtaking immersive light installation. Copper wires, suspended in a dimly lit space, react to your movements, transforming the artwork in real time. The space itself becomes the medium, a dynamic interplay of light, shadow, and your own physical presence. It's an experience that encourages contemplation and a personal connection with the art.
But "Weaving Space" is more than just Ttéia 1, C. The exhibition also showcases a range of Pape's creations, from her early abstract etchings that established her visual language to her monumental Livre de la Nuit et du Jour (Book of Night and Day), a diary exploring time, rhythm, and contrast. A selection of experimental films further expands this immersive experience, revealing Pape's multifaceted artistic practice and her engagement with the sociopolitical context of Brazil during a period of significant change.
On the occasion of the Brazil-France 2025 Season, the Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection unveils Tisser l'espace, the very first solo exhibition in France by Lygia Pape. This exhibition invites the public on a sensory journey, halfway between installation, abstraction, and performance, promising total immersion in a universe where materials give way to perceptions. Known for having profoundly shaken up the codes of modern art, Pape presents a living, interactive art form in which the viewer becomes an integral part of the work.
The flagship installation Ttéia 1, C welcomes you to a dimly lit room, where copper wires, stretched like rays of light, float in the air. As you wander around this work, your movements and the light transform the installation: it reveals itself, disappears, then reappears, always different. Here, space is no longer a simple container; it becomes matter, structure, and language. You are invited to slow down, feel, and weave your own relationship with the work.
But "Weaving Space" doesn't stop there. The exhibition unfolds a rich journey back to Lygia Pape's beginnings, notably through her abstract etchings, which are the foundation of her visual language. These early works already reveal a desire to break away from the passivity of the gaze by soliciting body movements and the play of light. A little further on, visitors can explore the majestic Livre de la Nuit et du Jour (1963-1976), a plastic diary of her research into time, rhythm, and contrasts.
In the Auditorium, a selection of experimental films extends this immersive experience. Here, Lygia Pape manipulates images as she does space: for her, art is not limited to one discipline but embraces a multitude of media to better question life, its norms, and tensions. If you're interested in the crossroads between contemporary art and social commitment, these films offer a powerful look at a Brazil in the throes of change, and an artist who has used her own weapons to respond to a tense political context.
This exhibition is aimed at contemporary art enthusiasts as well as the curious looking for a new experience, both contemplative and physical. Whether you come with your family, as a couple, or with friends, Tisser l'espace offers you a moment of suspension, away from the hustle and bustle of Paris. Within the soothing confines of the Bourse de Commerce, art becomes a play of reflections, presence and absence, emptiness and tension.
When you visit this exhibition, you won't just be looking at a work of art; you'll be walking through it. You won't remain on the sidelines; you'll be engaged, called upon to interact. Perhaps this is Lygia Pape's most beautiful weaving: that of an invisible but palpable link between the artist, her work, and you.
Tickets for the exhibition are priced at €15 for full price and €10 for reduced price. The Bourse de Commerce is located at 2 rue de Viarmes, 75001 Paris 1, and is open from Wednesday to Monday, 11 AM to 7 PM, with extended hours on Fridays until 9 PM. Don't miss this opportunity to weave your own story into the fabric of this exceptional exhibition. For tickets and further information, visit the Bourse de Commerce website.
