Nuit Blanche 2016
Nuit Blanche
Under the direction of Jean de Loisy and the Palais de Tokyo
Sponsor: Ville de Paris
Festina lente
“Hurry up slowly” was the adage that appeared on the Venetian publication of The Poliphilus at the very end of the 15th century.
Along the Seine, from one bank to the other, let us hurry up to pursue beauty and stop to contemplate it. Let’s go from medieval Paris to modern Paris in a journey through time that continues to the first island of tomorrow in Paris, Saint Germain Island.
On this magnificent path, along the water, let us discover the story that today’s artists weave for us from work to work and which finds the great archetypes that have built, with the creators of the past, European culture since antiquity.
Let us take Poliphilus as a guide who leads us from yesterday to tomorrow as in a dream, driven by his desire to reach the nymph with a thousand faces. For some, it is beauty; for others, pleasure; for others, wisdom or knowledge.
Let us think when we cross the river thanks to the magnificent bridges of Paris to those who have to cross obstacles in extreme situations. For the better, they are driven by the challenge, they can be athletes or, each of us, confronted with the need to do better. For the worst, they are exiled by tragedy, violence, poverty, it can be migrants or one day ourselves.
Let us celebrate those who invent, those creators whom Paris has always honoured and who have given it its extraordinary brilliance, as do the institutions of our capital, which, like the Palais de Tokyo, are dedicated to supporting artists and beauty!
Jean de Loisy