Paul Virilio

A thinker focused on the sensations of movement, he always sought to take on all that escaped us. He is the author of several publications on the moral, political and cultural consequences of technology and speed, the realities that have stemmed from their encounter, with a term he has coined, the “dromosphere”. He cofounded the Architecture Principe Group with Claude Parent, and was a Professor Emeritus at the Ecole Spéciale d'Architecture. Among his friends were Eric Rohmer, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Jean Baudrillard, Ivan Illitch and many more. His thought ranged over areas from urbanism to philosophy by way of economics and politics.

Ever since their first collaboration in 1988, the Fondation Cartier and Virilio have maintained an ongoing conversation which can be traced through the many exhibitions he directed or curated, as well as joint publications: Vraiment Faux (1988), La Vitesse (1991), Azur (1993), 1 Monde Réel (1999), Le Désert (2000), Ce Qui Arrive (2002), Marc Newson, Kelvin 40 (2004), and Terre Natale, Ailleurs Commence Ici (2008) with Raymond Depardon. Virilio felt that an exhibition was thought made visible, a “revelationary” art. This fruitful collaboration also resulted in books and works such as the installation Exit (2008–2015), a cartography of the flow of human migrations, in collaboration with artists and architects Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio + Renfro as well as the film Unknown Quantity (2002) with author Svetlana Alexievitch, directed by Andrei Ujica.