Drawing on the work of Hélène Cixous (born in Oran, Algeria in 1937) and her intimate relationship to ghosts, the exhibition Phantom Itineraries proposes that artworks are haunted. This intuition — shared by the exhibition’s curators and artists—goes as far to suggest that artworks of different eras can be haunted by the same ghost, weaving a ghostly thread among them.

 The unconscious, extinct or unknown languages, the traumas of History and transgenerational stories are some of the subjects taken on by the fourteen artists in the exhibition. Their work, mirrors held up between us and history, function like portals and offer specters the opportunity to express themselves. They ask us to look at the rise of fascism, the wars of the 20^th century and their numerous genocides to help us analyze the era in which we live. They call for the need to be attentive to History’s impasses and to oppose the repetition of systemic violences.

 The exhibition itinerary is composed by plastic sheets serving as filters: the visitor discerns the artworks’ silhouettes before seeing them. In this way, the exhibition invites memory to play a part in an introspective journey among the ghosts who engage us in the world. These phantoms move, politicize, and displace us. Lodged in artworks, they remind us of what we know we have already forgotten.

 Phantom Itineraries is an exhibition accompanied by an oracle deck of the same name, which was conceived by Alexandra Grant in collaboration with Hélène Cixous.

Order the oracle deck here.

Download the exhibition booklet here.