PARIS.- Can one make works of art which are not ‘of art’? Questioning as Duchamp did the essence of creation and its territories, the Palais de Tokyo explores interstitial worlds, at the borders of art, creation and invention.

The exhibition “Le bord des mondes” is an invitation to travel to the farthest reaches of creation by revealing the prodigious investigations and inventions of a number of visionaries, beyond the traditional realm of art.

From the giant beach creatures of Theo Jansen to Kawakami Kenji’s surprising chindogu or Carlos Espinosa’s poetical cloud traps, the exhibition encourages viewers to go down forbidden paths and bridge the gap that normally separates artistic creation and inventiveness.

Situated at the edges of art and invention, the exhibition shatters the borders between worlds, between identified artistic territories and parallel worlds outside of the art system, by exploring the fertile precipice that can bring them together. By questioning the foundations of a rationalizing modernity that isolates knowledge and practices from each other by excluding unclassifiable acts and ideas, the exhibition looks at original and surprising research.

Twenty-two creators – most of whom come from outside the field of art – develop visions and ideas that through their sheer beauty could certainly belong to it. Neither outsider nor naïve artists, no more than they are “eccentric,” these free spirits explore unknown forms and refresh our gaze, beyond cannons and disciplines.

These are like so many stories that, through their originality and inventiveness, renew our attention to the mysterious zones of creation, expressed in its most audacious form. Here, experience, reinvention and the overcoming of divisions prevail.

Curator: Rebecca Lamarche Vadel Exhibition design : Stéphane Maupin et Nicolas Hugon

With: Carlos ESPINOSA, Kenji KAWAKAMI, Theo JANSEN, Jerry GRETZINGER, Rose-Lynn FISHER, GAME OF STATES, Tomás SARACENO, Laurent DEROBERT, Iris VAN HERPEN, Hiroshi ISHIGURO, Jean KATAMBAYI, George WIDENER, SAPEURS, Jesse KRIMES, Bridget POLK, Charlie LE MINDU, Arnold ODERMATT, CKY, Zdenek KOSEK, Pierre GAGNAIRE, KUSKöY, LE PRINCE NOIR, CRÉATEURS HISTORIQUES : Jacques Gautier D’AGOTY, Leopold et Rudolph BLASCHKA, Leigh BOWERY, Jean COMANDON, Jean-Martin CHARCOT, Guillaume DUCHENNE DE BOULOGNE, Harold EDGERTON, Friedrich JüRGENSON, Etienne-Jules MAREY, Jean PAINLEVÉ, Jean PERDRIZET, Hermann RORSCHACH, Percy SMITH