“Better to die than to be disabled!” — this exclamation alone sums up the ableist gaze our society casts on disability. Rooted in a capitalist system that prizes performance, it divides so-called “able-bodied” people, supposedly destined for happiness, from disabled people, whose lives would allegedly not be worth living.

Yet one in two people will, at some point in their life, be directly affected by disability, whether temporarily or permanently. Chiara Kahn and Charlotte Puiseux revisit the history of how ableism has been socially constructed. They expose the mechanisms at work in order to open up new perspectives, where every human being can find their place without the need to transcend their difference. Not living in spite of, but living with.

Learning to step away from productivist logics, no longer being ashamed of vulnerability and interdependence, embracing all our particularities to carve a path toward solidarity, pride, and recognition — this is the ambitious yet essential goal of the book.

Plutôt vivre. Comprendre le validisme et valoriser une culture crip
(Rather Live. Understanding Ableism and Valuing a Crip Culture)
Chiara Kahn & Charlotte Puiseux
Le Cavalier Bleu Publishing, 2025
13 x 20,5cm– 144 pages
18€

Books will be available for sale on site by Librairie La Brèche and artist Morgan.e will be presenting their work.

Bétonsalon is accessible:

By public transport, metro, RER and bus, with various accessible stops (lifts, clear access, etc.): Metro line 14 and RER C, Bibliothèque François Mitterrand stop, exit 2 “Avenue de France”/ exit 3 “Rue René Goscinny” (served by a lift); bus 64: accessible stop “Bibliothèque – Chevaleret”, bus 62 & 89 accessible stop “Bibliothèque – Rue Mann”, bus 132 accessible stop “Oudiné”.

By car: Wheelchair users can be dropped off right in front of the art centre: access via rue Marguerite Duras, then via Esplanade Pierre Vidal Naquet, along the Halle aux farines. The nearest designated parking spaces are on rue Françoise Dolto, then rue Hélène Brion and rue René Goscinny.

Map available here.

All reception areas and toilets at the art centre are accessible to people with reduced mobility.
Event subtitled and broadcast live on Instagram via the @betonsalon account. Masks available.