Exhibition guide

Through the prism of contemporary art and the light of scientific data, the Origins exhibition questions one of the most powerful and persistent factors of discrimination in our society. “Origin”, real or fantasized, is a cause of exclusion and stigmatization on a daily basis. An often deaf reality, which nevertheless shapes collective and individual trajectories, from childhood.

Visit details

  • Dates: From Friday June 5, 2026 to Sunday August 23, 2026: Saturday, Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
  • Venue: Palais de la Porte Dorée, 293, avenue Daumesnil, Paris
  • Price: Ouverture de la billetterie début mai.
  • Audience: All audiences
  • Source: Event page

About the exhibition

ExposureDiscrimination often arises from a simple glance. People of foreign origin and/or perceived as such suffer massively from this. This "origin" - real, supposed or fantasized - is the source of tenacious stereotypes, which often condition life paths from childhood.

Through the subversive gaze of contemporary artists - including the Chevalme sisters, Patrick Zachmann, Euridice Zaituna Kala, Hamedine Kane - and unpublished data, the exhibition At the origins invites us to go back to the source of these mechanisms of stigmatization and of exclusion, by questioning the way in which views are constructed and perpetuated.

Based on recent research in the social sciences, and in particular on the European project UNDETTERED* - UNintentional Discrimination dETected and Racism REveal and Deactivate - the course highlights the structural, sometimes unconscious, nature of discrimination. Without forgetting the concrete effects in daily life, particularly among the youngest. Access to education, employment, housing or care: all areas where this spiral produces lasting inequalities.

Echoing the figures, the works of contemporary artists bear witness to the sensitive side of this discrimination: fatigue, obstacles, but also the forms of resistance and solidarity that result from them are all intimate, lasting and often invisible effects of these.

At the origins is a way to invite everyone to question their own perceptions and to envisage a society free of these mechanisms of discrimination in their daily lives.