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Huang Yong Ping, La Maison d’augures: an Inner Reflection

Gallery talk

  • Events, Paris
  • Wed 20 May 2026, 18:00
  • Extra 5€ with your exhibition ticket
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Huang Yong Ping, Les Nuits de l'Incertitude, 20 septembre 2014.
Huang Yong Ping, Les Nuits de l'Incertitude, 20 septembre 2014 © Olivier Ouadah

Location

Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain

2, place du Palais-Royal

75001 Paris

Directions

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Duration : 45 min

Among the works by Huang Yong Ping held in the Fondation Cartier’s collection, La Maison d’augures (1989–1992) is one of his most iconic pieces. The work takes the form of a vast tent housing various divination tools. Each of these instruments refers to the Yi Jing, the oldest Chinese book of divination. 

Inspired by both traditional Chinese Thought and Western avant-garde movements, the work of Huang Yong Ping (1954–2019) highlights the importance of reciprocal influences between cultures. Upon his arrival in France, by employing divination as a method, Huang Yong Ping introduced an external force into the creative process, allowing the work to emerge according to logics beyond the artist’s control and enabling him to maintain a distance from the dominant currents of Western art. In 1992, he realized that this external force itself called for questioning. La Maison d’augures marks precisely this moment of shift. 

La Maison d’augures will be on display at the Fondation Cartier starting April 21, 2026, as part of Exposition Générale. To mark the occasion, a Gallery talk in front of the artwork traces the history of this work and explores its various components. 

Huang Yong Ping, La Maison d'augures, 1989-1992, Collection Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain
Huang Yong Ping, La Maison d'augures, 1989-1992, Collection Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain. © Archives Huang Yong Ping / Adagp 2026, Paris
Hou Hanru

Hou Hanru

Art critic and curator

Art critic and curator Hou Hanru was Artistic Director of MAXXI in Rome (2013-2022). Advisor for several international institutions including Power Station of Art (Shanghai) and The Solomon Guggenheim Museum (New York), he has curated and co-curated around 150 exhibitions over three decades, including projects at the Venice Biennale (Huang Yong Ping at the French Pavilion in 1999, Zone of Urgency in 2003, Chinese Pavilion in 2007). He also collaborated with Huang Yong Ping on his serie of exhibitions Bâton Serpent I, II, III series of exhibitions (2014-2016). His book 20 Texts on Huang Yong Ping will be published by Art Asia Pacific Editions in 2026. 

Portrait de Sandra Adam

Sandra Adam-Couralet

Exhibition curator

Sandra Adam-Couralet is an exhibition curator, art historian and art critic. Since 2021, she is curator of the Collection at the Fondation Cartier.  

Previously curator at the Palais de Tokyo, she notably organized the group exhibition Enfance (2018, dramaturgy: Clément Cogitore). In 2016, she curated the Nuit Blanche in Paris as associate artistic director, with Jean de Loisy and the Palais de Tokyo. 

Between 2013 and 2017, Sandra Adam-Couralet was co-producer of the weekly program “Les Regardeurs” on France Culture. Between 2016 and 2019, she worked on Arnaud Laporte’s program “La Dispute.” 

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