Summary:
- Barbara Kruger presents The History of Tears in the rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce in Paris.
- The installation covers the building in black, white and red text on alienation, violence, power and sexuality.
- A second show, Remember Me, marks 200 years of photography and runs at the same venue.
Barbara Kruger has installed a new work in the rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce in Paris. Titled The History of Tears, the installation covers the Tadao Ando architecture in black, white and red. The title comes from the phrase "Who Will Write the History of Tears?", which recurs across her work.
Text fills the space. Words and phrases address alienation, violence, power and sexuality. The walls carry quotations from George Orwell's 1984 and Aimé Césaire's Journal of a Homecoming. Both books warn about the damage oppression causes.
In the passage, 24 display cases now work as light boxes. One reads "MORALIZE IT" and another reads "KISS IT". Two video works hang nearby, including Power, Pleasure, Desire, Disgust from 1996.
Kruger also wrote a text for the installation. She describes a constant deluge of the eyes and a reservoir of loss, fear, power, pleasure, desire and disgust. She writes that this reservoir grows through domination and conquest, in public life and at home. She adds that Kruger's reservoir spills out during global violence and during the cruelties of intimate relationships.
A second exhibition, Remember Me, takes its inspiration from a Kruger work dated 1988/2020. The show marks 200 years of photography and covers different eras and genres. You will see more than 700 works by over 70 artists, among them Annie Leibovitz, Peter Hujar, Nan Goldin, Man Ray, Lee Miller, Irving Penn, Cindy Sherman, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Wolfgang Tillmans and Danh Võ. Mattieu Humery, photography advisor to the Pinault Collection, curated Remember Me and the rotunda installation.
Both exhibitions run from October 7, 2026 until January 18, 2027.
Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection
2 Rue de Viarmes
75001 Paris, France
Andrea Darren
Born in Manchester, from a young age, she was passionate about art and design. She studied at the University of the Arts in London, where she developed her skills in these fields. Today, Andrea works as an editor for a renowned publishing house, combining her love for art and design with her editorial expertise.
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