Thomas Demand: The Stutter of History

The German photographer and sculptor has spent the last two and a half decades examining the uncanny relationship between visual culture and collective memory. This exhibition at the Jeu de Paume in Paris (14 February–28 May) brings together more than 70 works ranging from film and photography to wallpaper designs. While Demand’s images appear to capture real life, they are in fact photographs of three-dimensional models which the artist makes by hand using cardboard and coloured paper. These sculptural spaces are based on source imagery taken from the media; after being photographed, they are destroyed so that only the two-dimensional image remains. Highlights on display include Control room (2011), which captures a meticulous reconstruction of the nuclear reactor control room at Fukushima, and Gangway (2001), depicting the eerily empty doorway of a passenger jet. Find out more on Jeu de Paume’s website.

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Still from Pacific Sun (2012), Thomas Demand. © Thomas Demand, Adagp, Paris, 2023

Gangway (2001), Thomas Demand. © Thomas Demand, Adagp, Paris, 2023

Control Room (2011), Thomas Demand. © Thomas Demand, Adagp, Paris, 2023