In 2026, Bétonsalon and the Kandinsky Library are launching a new programme of events, “Touching the Archive”, inviting participants to explore an archival collection that resonates with Bétonsalon’s programme. Organized once per show, these sessions will be led by a specialist researcher invited to present a selection of documents in various forms, whose histories, practices and commitments resonate with the programme’s research focuses. This cycle reflects a shared ambition to make these archives tangible and accessible, bringing them into direct contact with the exhibition and its audiences.
On the occasion of the exhibition Magnanrama : Media, technologies, identities and networks around Nathalie Magnan, the Kandinsky Library is bringing the Boys with Arms Akimbo / Girls with Arms Akimbo collection and the Jo Spence scrapbooks to Bétonsalon. Echoing the feminist, queer, activist and media networks that run through Nathalie Magnan’s life and activities, these collections offer an opportunity to explore different forms of production, use and circulation of images that have resisted processes of invisibilisation.
Posters, publications, photographs and archival documents will be brought together to examine politics of representation surrounding the body, gender and sexuality, as well as editorial and collective practices, and the connections between images, pedagogy, social critique and activism.
The session will be led by Valentin Gleyze (PhD in Contemporary Art History, Teaching and Research Fellow (ATER), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Diane Toubert (Archivist, Kandinsky Library, MNAM–Centre Pompidou) and Fanny Lautissier (Archivist, Kandinsky Library, MNAM–Centre Pompidou).