Marais, Paris
Group Exhibition
Ne Pas Toucher
Vie ProjectsDo Not Touch stems from an observation. The attacks, censorship, and acts of vandalism targeting the works of women and non-binary, cis or trans artists are not isolated incidents but reactions. Reactions to bodies that elude us, to images that refuse to be made available, to narratives that shift power dynamics. Rather than documenting this violence, the exhibition effects a reversal. It transforms the space into an active apparatus, a testing ground where some works respond, others resist, and where the male gaze ceases to reign supreme. The title Do Not Touch initially functions as a familiar injunction, that of museums, which organizes the distancing of artworks and the discipline of bodies within the exhibition space. But it also refers to another, more diffuse form of prohibition, one that permeates the bodies themselves. Who can be looked at, approached, desired, and under what conditions? From the moment you enter, a charter of looking and consent sets out the rules of the game. It is not fixed. Visitors are invited to engage with it, to add to it, to write their own rules within it. The exhibition is organized around situations. Gestures are triggered, bodies are exposed or restrained, images are blocked, surfaces are protected. Some works take the form of traps for the gaze. They anticipate the gesture, absorb the attempted intrusion, or make it visible. A motif runs discreetly through the exhibition: that of the trap. Not as a threat, but as a structure. Forms evoking mousetraps appear in the space, sometimes as elements of distancing, sometimes as mediating tools. They remind us that what is at stake here is not the capture of bodies, but the capture of reflexes. The body is at the center. Desiring bodies, exposed, constrained, political. What can be shown, what must be hidden, what triggers violence or censorship. The artists gathered here explore these boundaries, between exposure and withdrawal, visibility and erasure. Some works explore the trace and transformation. Others directly confront the gaze with its own mechanisms, proposing installations in which the gesture of interaction turns against itself. Still others question the visibility of the body, its circulation, its protection or exposure, or give form to strategies of resistance against censorship and violence. "Not touching" does not designate culprits. It creates a situation. It allows action. It observes what happens when the gesture precedes the idea, when the intrusive gaze slips, when control fails, when the attempt at censorship itself becomes visible. The exhibition chooses defusing rather than confrontation. Humor, irony, and displacement become critical tools. Here, the trap does not capture bodies. It reveals gestures. Through this exhibition, the onlooker is invited to turn the art opening experience around, upside-down, and inside-out. Each artist, brand, partner and performer has reimagined their art for Ne Pas Toucher. Things that we would not usually touch... perhaps we can. Things that we could usually touch... perhaps we can no longer touch them. The programme of this opening involves surprising artworks from 13 artists - a very important number for femininity - as well as the Ne Pas Toucher godmother, Camille Aumont Carnel, who launches her activity as a visual artist for the very first time. Alongside this fantastic first will be fiery performances by Pandora Nox, the first cisgender woman to ever win a Ru Paul Drag Race season, winning the first season of Drag Race Germany. Accompanying these fantastic performances will be Gonthier & Friends on the decks, also linking Germany and France thanks to her residencies in Berlin (Soho House) et al. An important note on our brand sponsors: Lelo, Bonnard, Café Solo, and Madre Mezcal. For Lelo, the connection with Ne Pas Toucher is not merely thematic; it is narrative and almost self-evident. The exhibition stems from a documented and global observation: works by female artists (cis, trans, non-binary) are regularly attacked, censored, and vandalized whenever the bodies they depict deviate from dominant norms. These acts of censorship are not accidents; they are reactions to works that shift power dynamics and unsettle perception. The artists' response is not direct confrontation; it's subversion, defusing, humour, a trap set for the gaze that seeks to control. This is precisely what the new Lelo product does in the face of jackhammering. Jackhammering isn't just a technical flaw; it's the mechanical translation of a representation of sexuality constructed by and for the male gaze, imposed on female bodies throughout the erotic toy industry. Both projects carry the same message: the dominant gaze and gesture on the female body are over. Ne Pas Toucher expresses this through painting, performance, and installation. Lelo through the Dynamic Thrust. It's rare to find such precise alignment between a product launch and a cultural event. And the timing is perfect: the exhibition opens on 21 May 21, exactly within the scheduled Lelo global product launch window.