Leandro Erlich

Do you believe what you see? After captivating millions of visitors in Tokyo, Miami, and Milan, an exhibition dedicated to Leandro Erlich arrives for the first time in France at the Grand Palais. From one work to another, perspectives shift, architectures are disrupted, and reality transforms before your eyes.

Known for his spectacular installations in public spaces, Leandro Erlich explores the mechanisms of perception. At the intersection of installation, sculpture, and architecture, his immersive works - conceived at a human scale - take the form of dispositifs activated by the viewer's presence. By moving through and observing, each visitor becomes part of the experience. 

The artist draws on techniques borrowed from illusionism and trompe-l'œil: mirrors, appearances, shifts in scale, and perspective effects. Using elements from everyday life, he creates situations that unsettle reference points and transform our relationship to space. 

Conceived in collaboration with curator Fabrice Bousteau, the exhibition unfolds as a progressive journey composed of fourteen monumental and iconic installations: levitating boats, weightless clouds, modernist architectures transformed into infinite labyrinths, as well as a Haussmann-style building tipped onto its side that visitors can climb. 

Several installations, specially conceived for this retrospective, play with the inversion of perspective. What is perceived from the outside is transformed once inside. Viewpoints shift, and points of reference become unstable. Punctuated with artistic, literary, and architectural references, the exhibition also traces the artist's trajectory and questions the way we perceive reality. 

Exhibition organised by GrandPalaisRmn in coproduction with Arthemisia

Curator Fabrice Bousteau