INSIDE THE EXIT - Programmed Bodies, Escaping Subjectivities

Group Exhibition
10–17 October 2026
17 rue Chapon, 75003 Paris

When the rules become part of us, where does the exit lead?

Eight artistic positions explore how bodies learn to comply—and how a gesture, a pause or a change of rhythm might open another possibility.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

We learn when to move, how to appear and what it means to have done enough. Through repetition, these instructions become habits. Eventually, they can become difficult to distinguish from our own intentions.

Inside the Exit brings together moving image, performance, sound and installation to examine how systems of work and social organisation shape individual experience. Across the exhibition, bodies repeat assigned gestures, voices offer polite instructions, and spaces promise exits that remain just beyond reach.

The works approach control through its everyday forms: a professional smile that persists after work, a target that rises with every achievement, a face adjusted to meet the expectations of a camera. They ask how identity takes shape within these routines, and what remains available for an individual to change.

Here, escape begins as an uncertain act. A person pauses. A body falls out of step. An instruction goes unanswered. Each interruption offers a moment in which a familiar rule can become visible—and open to question.

ARTISTS & WORKS

CHONGHAO HUA
Media, Identity, and Regulation
Moving image

Following a mysterious transformation, a protagonist enters a group whose members share increasingly similar behaviours. Their search for a way out becomes an attempt to separate personal intention from rules already embedded in the body and mind. Hua examines the dissolution and reconstruction of individual subjectivity within systems of production and social regulation.

CLAIRE VAUTRIN
Rest Instruction
Two-channel video and sound installation

A performer repeats a sequence of work tasks while a neighbouring screen instructs them to rest. Each pause brings further directions governing posture, breathing and duration. Vautrin asks what happens to personal time when even recovery becomes something to perform correctly.

MATHIEU DELORME
Please Follow the Exit
Spatial installation, light and sensors

Illuminated signs guide visitors through a succession of connected rooms. As one doorway approaches, another route lights up. Delorme turns navigation into a study of obedience, revealing how readily a promise of departure can direct our movements.

INÈS CARREL
Remain Recognisable
Interactive video and real-time image processing

A camera asks visitors to smile, face forward and remain still. With each adjustment, their image moves closer to a shared expression. Departures from the instructions allow individual details to reappear. Carrel explores the distance between being recognised by a system and being understood as a person.

ÉTIENNE MOREL
Thank You for Your Cooperation
Multichannel sound installation

Gentle voices ask visitors to move forward, wait or continue. Their instructions sometimes conflict; their thanks may arrive before anyone has acted. Morel draws attention to the familiar language through which public environments organise behaviour.

LUCIE BERTIN
The Smile After Work
Single-channel video and textile installation

A performer returns home and removes her uniform, yet ordinary sounds repeatedly bring a professional smile back to her face. Service phrases embroidered inside the displayed clothing trace the demands carried beyond the workplace. Bertin considers how emotional labour settles into bodily memory.

ADRIEN LEMAIRE
Still More to Do Today
Mechanical counters and interactive installation

Each press of a button records another completed action—and raises the target. Encouragement appears at intervals, followed by new demands. Visitors may leave at any time, but their progress remains marked as incomplete. Lemaire examines how measurement can make the feeling of having done enough continually recede.

MANON RIVIÈRE
Half a Beat Behind
Multichannel video and live performance

A group walks, turns and sits in synchrony. One performer remains slightly behind. As others adjust, the delay begins to travel through the group, gradually altering its rhythm. Rivière considers how a small deviation can create a collective possibility.

EXHIBITION DETAILS

10–17 October 2026

17 rue Chapon
75003 Paris, France

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Inside the Exit is a fictional exhibition proposal. Chonghao Hua’s presentation draws on the supplied artist biography and work description. The other seven artists and their works were created for this curatorial concept.