Lacan, The Exhibition: When Art Meets Psychoanalysis

“LACAN, THE EXHIBITION When Art Meets Psychoanalysis” curated by Marie-Laure Bernadac and Bernard Marcadé, art historians, in association with Gérard Wajcman and Paz Corona, psychoanalysts, delves into the crucial impact of Jacques Lacan‘s ideas on modernity and contemporary experience. The exhibition is simultaneously an homage to psychoanalysis and a celebration of art’s enduring mystery.

The French psychoanalyst was closely involved with 20th-century artists and art, interpreting artworks as dazzling objects that look back at the viewer. Despite his deep connection to art,  evident in many of his acquisition, Lacan’s unique perspective has yet to be explored in museum settings.

The exhibition is a journey into Lacan’s main thoughts and inventions: the mirror stage, the concept of Lalangue, the rethink of the notion of patriarchy, the object a, the reinterpretation of femininity. Homage is paid to the masquerade and the fluidity of gender identity in accordance to Lacan’s position that anatomy is not destiny. A crucial part of the visit is the chapter devoted to Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde.

Inspired by Duchamp’s The Large Glass, the exhibition culminates in a reflection on love and jouissance, concluding with Lacan’s later interest in topology.