Aux origines - Regards croisés sur le racisme et les discriminations

Through the prism of contemporary art and the insights of scientific data, the exhibition Aux origines questions one of the most powerful and persistent factors of discrimination in our society. “Origin”, real or fantasised, is a cause of exclusion and stigmatisation in daily life. An often silent reality, which nevertheless shapes collective and individual trajectories, right from childhood.

Aux origines - Regards croisés sur le racisme et les discriminations From 5 June to 23 August 2026 The exhibition Discriminations often arise from a simple glance. People of foreign origin and/or perceived as such massively bear the brunt of this.

This “origin” – real, supposed, or fantasised – is at the root of tenacious stereotypes, which often condition life paths from childhood.

Through the subversive gaze of contemporary artists – including the Chevalme sisters, Patrick Zachmann, Euridice Zaituna Kala, Hamedine Kane – and unprecedented data, the exhibition Aux origines invites us to trace back to the source of these mechanisms of stigmatisation and exclusion, by questioning how gazes are constructed and perpetuated.

Drawing on recent research in social sciences, and notably on the European project UNDETERRED * – UNintentional Discrimination dETEcted and Racism REveal and Deactivate – the exhibition highlights the structural, sometimes unconscious, nature of discriminations.

Without forgetting their concrete effects in daily life, particularly among the youngest. Access to education, employment, housing, or healthcare: all areas where this spiral produces lasting inequalities.

Echoing the numerical data, the works of contemporary artists bear witness to the sensitive side of these discriminations: the fatigue, the obstacles, but also the forms of resistance and solidarity that result from them are all intimate, lasting, and often invisible effects.

Aux origines is a way of inviting everyone to question their own perceptions and to envision a society freed from these mechanisms of discrimination in their daily lives.

• The UNDETERRED project aims to contribute to the fight against systemic discriminations suffered by European youth (18-35 years old) in the fields of health, housing, education, and employment. Coordinated by the Un