Les Voix de la Vallée

Michel Cassé and Pascal Rousseau

How to relate a life? Poetry, the landscape, and cosmology

This night class is completed.

View upcoming night classes

This night class is available on podcast.


About the night class

As part of the exhibition The Valley by Fabrice Hyber, the Fondation Cartier invites literary astrophysicist Michel Cassé and art historian Pascal Rousseau to participate in the Voices of the Valley evening class series. Within the exhibition spaces, the two guest speakers discuss the hypotheses proposed by Fabrice Hyber in his paintings before a live audience.

Over the course of this evening, based on the works La Serrie, paysage biographique de mes parents, Paysage biographique de Pierre Giquel, and Paysage biographique de la Vallée, the two experts in their field will ask themselves the question: “How to relate a life?” and will exchange on poetry, landscape, and cosmology. The work 9 dim is also the opportunity to evoke the nine dimensions of space.

This live discussion will be broadcast simultaneously on the websites of the Fondation Cartier and *Duuu Radio, and in the form of podcasts via the main platforms.


With the participation of:

  • Picture Thomas Salva.
    Michel Cassé

    Michel Cassé is a literary astrophysicist. Director of research (emeritus) at the CEA (Atomic and Alternatives Energy Commission), he specializes in stellar physics, nucleosynthesis, the study of radiation and quantum physics. He is currently working on highlighting the radiation of black holes predicted by Stephen Hawking, via their emission of gamma rays. In his books, he focuses on the relationship between man and the universe, exploring all areas of expertise, with philosophy, religion, and poetry never far away. Under the impetus of Michel Cassé, the Fleurance Circle of Astrophysics (in Gascony) was recently born and brings together scientists of all nationalities, in particular Ukrainian.

  • Picture Hugo Aymar.
    Pascal Rousseau

    Pascal Rousseau is a professor of art history at the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. He also curated the following exhibitions: Robert Delaunay. De l’impressionnisme à l’abstraction (Centre Pompidou, 1999), Aux origines de l’abstraction. 1800-1914 (Musée d’Orsay, 2003), Cosa mentale. Les imaginaires de la télépathie dans l’art du XXe siècle (Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2015), and Hypnose. Art et hypnotisme de Mesmer à nos jours (Musée des Arts de Nantes, 2020). He is the author of some one hundred articles in journals and exhibition catalogues, including numerous contributions on the visual culture of early modernism and the links between art and experimental psychology. He has written numerous texts on the work of Fabrice Hyber, some of which were included in the latter’s first monograph, published by Hazan in 1999.



Practical information

Additional information

Thursdays at 7pm.
Estimated duration: 1 hour.
Discussions in French.
Free seating within the limit of available spaces.
Access to the classroom where the evening class is held upon presentation of the exhibition ticket.
This ticket includes access to the evening class on the date chosen when booking, as well as entry to the exhibition that same day from 5pm.
The evening classes are broadcast live on the websites of the Fondation Cartier and *Duuu Radio, before being made available in the form of podcasts.
Latecomers will not be allowed access to the event so as not to disturb the speakers or interfere with the audio recording. We thank the audience in advance for their punctuality.

Do you have a question?
Please see our Frequently Asked Questions


Past night classes