L'économie du désir

Our economic system quickly learned to instrumentalize the power of desire as a powerful vehicle for driving continued growth. The system never intended for desire to actually become fulfilled, instead doubling up ultimately unattainable promises of happiness that it kept tantalizingly out of grasp. Overconsumption, mass tourism, resource depletion, blind trust in technology—all excesses of a new world order that forms the backbone of society and social aspiration today.
The exhibition titled L’économie du désir (‘The Economy of Desire’) pulls together work by nearly two-dozen artists portraying the visible consequences of letting this kind of system run rampant—especially for the environment, as seen in concrete structures swamping over Japan’s forested areas like a gigantic poultice (Julien Guinand), in the swathes of Spain ravaged by big tourism (Sylvain Couzinet-Jacques), or in the hauntingly disembodied atmosphere of a dairy farm run entirely by computer software (Sarah del Pino). The artists’ work also foregrounds how this system, which self-defines through its rampant globalization, has repercussions that spill over onto people and communities, in standardized patterns of social behaviour (Martin Parr), rising forms of alienation (Cécile Bicler, Rachel Labastie), mounting social inequality (Paul Graham), in what technologies do to health (Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis)...
To counter the situation, alternative scenarios emerge that hold catastrophic collapse at bay. The term ‘desire’ now feels corrupted and deformed from its original meaning. This exhibition sets out to rethink and reframe desire in a fresh new form, in a new social imaginary. An economy of desire—in the sense of careful use and management—would redefine desire not as some kind of inescapable force we are compelled to yield to, but as a new, creative, replenishable energy.
This is the compelling and ultimately uplifting idea championed by the author Alain Damasio, who argues that “desire is the key battleground”—win, and we create the impulse to reconnect with others, with life and the living world, to be able, once again, to imagine a desirable future.

• Dove Allouche Cécile Bicler Sylvain Couzinet-Jacques Sarah del Pino Paul Graham Julien Guinand Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis Rachel Labastie Philip-Lorca diCorcia François Dufrêne Andreas Eriksson Larissa Fassler Marc Lathuillière Julien Lombardi Manuela Marques Tadashi Ono Martin Parr