Revoir Paris. Comics by Schuiten Peeters: between history and urban illusion

November 20, 2014-March 9, 2015

The award-winning comic strip series "Les Cités obscures" was born out of a long-standing association since the early 1980s between the French writer, scriptwriter and critic Benoît Peeters (1956-) and the Belgian cartoonist and set designer François Schuiten (1956-). Now numbering 15 albums, translated into numerous languages, the two have created multiple fictional worlds in which mankind lives in independent city-states, each characterized by a distinct architectural style. In 2009, the imaginary became reality with the redevelopment of the Arts et Métiers metro station (2009). Their fictional, technological, mechanical and futuristic universe has always maintained an intimate link with the 'real' world, constantly fed by numerous references from the fields of utopian architecture and urbanism. His latest project, Schuiten Peeters, the first chapter in the series Revoir Paris, tome 1, 2014, once again gives urban speculation a predominant, even leading, role in the narrative thread. On the occasion of the launch of this new album, the two authors have teamed up to present to the public, alongside the original drawings by François Schuiten, the architectural and urban planning projects that have nourished their prospective reflection this time. This new exhibition, hosted by the Museum of Architecture and Heritage in Paris, brings together an impressive series of iconic plans and perspectives from the last two centuries, including the historical maps of the Haussmanian interventions in the urban fabric of the French capital, Jacques Lambert's proposal for the Tower-City of Paris (1922), Le Corbusier's Voisin Plan (1925) and Yona Friedman's perspectives of Spatial Paris (1960). Produced in partnership with Dassault Systems' Passion for Innovation Institute, the universe imagined by Schuiten and Peeters can also be explored via an interactive multimedia device. The "Planet" Paris, in 3D in the form of a sphere - but retaining the characteristic comic strip aesthetics - can be visualized and explored in depth at three key points in the city: Notre Dame Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower and the La Defense district. For each site, the public can choose between a historical incursion, a current representation or the prospective universe advanced by the authors. As a final interweaving between fiction and reality, architects Jean Nouvel, Odile Decq, Toyo Ito, Philippe Rahm, and historians Philippe Simay and Régine Robin share their own urban reverie with the public.

Curators: F. Schuiten, B. Peeters