Paul Virilio

An evening organized for the publication of Paul Virilio’s latest collection La fin du monde est un concept sans avenir. Œuvres (1957-2010), published by Éditions du Seuil (general release date: October 13, 2023).

Philosopher, sociologist, urban planner, and a theorist exploring the acceleration of the world in our ultra-technical societies, Paul Virilio (1932-2018) never stopped thinking about speed and its consequences on humankind, the economy, environment, and geopolitics. For him, the exhibition was a visible thought experiment, a “revelationary” art. A thinker of mobile and moving feelings, he was forever focused on exploring the unfathomable.

Since their first collaboration in 1988, Paul Virilio and the Fondation Cartier have continued an uninterrupted conversation, coming together through exhibitions either directed or accompanied by Paul Virilio, as well as a number of publications: Native Land, Stop Eject (2008) with Raymond Depardon; Marc Newson, Kelvin 40 (2004); Unknown Quantity (2002); the desert (2000); 1 monde réel (1999); Azur (1993); La Vitesse (1991); Vraiment faux (1988). From this great complicity, several texts and works were born, including the installation Exit (2008-2015), a map of migratory flows with architects and artists such as Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio + Renfro, and the film Unknown Quantity (2002) with writer Svetlana Alexievich, directed by filmmaker Andrei Ujica. In 2012, the Fondation Cartier brought together all of the texts written by Paul Virilio during these various collaborations in a book published by Actes Sud, entitled La Pensée exposée.

“The end of the world is a concept without a future” or such is the hope. On the occasion of the publication by Éditions du Seuil of this anthology of texts by Paul Virilio, a compilation of his first twenty-two essays and unpublished works, the Night of Uncertainty Paul Virilio invites the public to celebrate the ultra- visionary thinking of this attentive and caring philosopher who taught us to find hope beyond the disaster through highly topical texts.

The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture (ESA) shared Paul Virilio’s inspiration. The ESA is joining forces for this evening to continue to make his ideas known to new generations of architects.

Enki Bilal, author of graphic novels and film director.
Hervé Chandès, General Artistic Director of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
Kitsou Dubois, choreographer, researcher specializing in dance in weightlessness.
Christian Joschke, professor at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, art historian, and co-founder of the review Transbordeur.
Jean Richer, architect, author of the critical apparatus accompanying the re-edition.
Achille Stocchi, particle physics physicist and director of the Physics Laboratory of the Two Infinities Irène Joliot-Curie.
Stéphane Velut, neurosurgeon and author.
Sophie Virilio, daughter of Paul Virilio, founding member of the review Dromologie.
Maria Vlachou, editor, director of foreign publishing rights at Éditions du Seuil.
Hala Warde, architect, founding member of the review Dromologie.
Eyal Weizman, architect, author, director of the Forensic Architecture Laboratory, professor of spatial and visual culture at Goldsmiths, University of London.
And other guests.

Presented and moderated by journalist Stéphane Paoli.

Enki Bilal is a French artist of former Yugoslavian origin, notably a comic book artist, painter, and filmmaker. His universe explores time through the worlds of "past, present, and future," always with the theme of memory as a common thread.

Kitsou Dubois is a choreographer and director of the company Ki Productions. After an initial stint at NASA and then some twenty parabolic flights with the CNES, she seized upon the "phenomenon" of weightlessness to construct a unique choreographic style and explore the poetics of an environment where all reference points are disrupted.

Christian Joschke is a professor of art history at the Beaux-Arts de Paris and co-editor-in-chief of the journal Transbordeur. Photography, History, Society. He has published numerous texts on the history of photography and the relationship between art and politics, including "The Eyes of the Nation: Amateur Photography and Society in Wilhelm II's Germany." 1888-1914 (Les presses du réel, 2013).

Stéphane Paoli is a journalist. He began his career in 1969 on Europe 1 before joining France Inter in 1994 and continuing until 2016. He is one of its leading voices, notably hosting the 7/9 news program from 2006 to 2011. He is also the director of the documentary Paul Virilio, penser la vitesse for ARTE and the author of two books, Causa (Lattès, 2015) and Ce qui vient (Les Liens qui Libèrent, 2020).

An architect, Jean Richer simultaneously explores the historical time of heritage, the future described through foresight, and the uses of the present through a hybridization of architecture, landscape, and art in order to restore the phenomenological depth of time, which leads him to conduct research on architecture informed by the gray ecology of urban planner and philosopher Paul Virilio.

Achille Stocchi, born in Venice in 1963, is a Franco-Italian physicist. A professor at the University of Paris-Saclay, he conducts research in particle and accelerator physics and is director of the Irène Joliot-Curie Laboratory for the Physics of Two Infinites (IJCLab).

Stéphane Velut is a neurosurgeon and associate professor of anatomy. In addition to his scientific work, he has published two novels (Cadence, Bourgois, 2009; Festival, Verticales, 2014) and essays in the Tracts Gallimard collection (L’hôpital une nouvelle industrie, Le langage comme fantôme, 2020; Échec au Roi, in Un virus et des hommes, 2020; La mort hors la loi, 2021).

Sophie Virilio is a journalist, photographer, and novelist under a pseudonym. Since 2016, at the request of her father, Paul Virilio, she has worked to disseminate her ideas, both in France and abroad, through the journal Dromologie, as well as through meetings, exhibitions, and events to which she collaborates and supports her private collection.

Maria Vlachou is an editor and director of foreign rights at Éditions du Seuil. She holds a master's degree in literature from the Sorbonne Nouvelle University and a doctoral thesis in archaeology from the École Pratique des Hautes Études. She has collaborated with the RMN, the EHESS, and the PUF. Since 2021, she has chaired the extraduction commission for human sciences at the CNL.

Hala Wardé is an architect. She studied at the ESA with Paul Virilio, then Bernard Tschumi and Jean Nouvel, with whom she collaborated for over twenty years. As head of the HW Architecture firm, she has completed major projects including the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Mirabeau Tower in Marseille. She also works closely with numerous artists, including Etel Adnan, Giuseppe Penone, and Nan Goldin.

Eyal Weizman is the founder and director of Forensic Architecture and is Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, where in 2005 he founded the Centre for Research Architecture. In 2007, he founded the DAAR architectural collective in Palestine with Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti. He has written numerous books and worked for several universities around the world.