Huma Bhabha in Vies minuscules

The title of this exhibition is taken from Pierre Michon’s 1984 novel, which brings together eight portraits of strangers, from which he weaves his own biography. Made up of works from the Centre Pompidou collection, it examines how art has created space for the lives relegated to the margins of history books, testifying to their role, however infinitesimal, intimate or ignoble.

Deep inside the nave of the Pantheon, a monument dedicated to the great men and women of France, Small Lives presents works by some 30 artists, covering over a century of creation, from František Kupka to Jumana Manna.
By exploring the forgotten lives that artists have taken as their subject, the exhibition offers a new interpretation of history, one that considers “the power and authority of the archive and the limits it sets on what can be known”, in the words of historian Saidiya Hartman.