◀︎  Exhibitions

A possible futur

Using fictional devices to envision the city of tomorrow

Exhibition presented from November 30, 2023 to January 21, 2024 Click here to register 

How can cities reduce their energy footprint? How can terraces be made more welcoming for non-smokers? How can urban dwellers be inspired to embrace more considerate habits? How do we confront the issue of urban loneliness? … Have you ever wondered how we could address such questions at our own level?

“Un Futur Possible” (A Possible Future) straddles the boundary between reality and imagination, putting on display thirty-two fictional devices responding to contemporary architectural and societal challenges to invite us to inquire into the city of tomorrow. These critical scenarios touch on issues that are both real and pressing. By exploring diverse relationships to space, the city, and its inhabitants, the scenography studio Poumtchak Studio delves into the unsettling to explore alternative interactions and new spatial possibilities through humour, irrationality, and absurdity.

Functioning as a laboratory of ideas, “Un Futur Possible” also invites us to acquaint ourselves with these challenges, as well as those thought up by fifty-five participants in various workshops conducted over a year. Each scenic device portrays a dystopian scenario that is deliberately beyond the bounds of possibility, yet reveals the complexity of the referenced issues and inspires practical responses. Exploring the impossible becomes a catalyst for envisioning a possible future, fostering collective action for the city.

“Un Futur Possible” immerses visitors in interactive engagement through thirty-two fictional devices crafted by Poumtchak Studio. Positioned on the fringes of fiction, the exhibition invites participants to experience four prototypes at a 1:1 scale, providing a tangible understanding to scrutinize the city of tomorrow. Designed as a blend of visit and workshop, the exhibition prompts visitors to dream up their own fictional device at the end of their exploration. The challenges highlighted in the exhibition help engage participants into becoming part and party of the collective development of a new “possible future.”




* Launched by Pavillon de l’Arsenal and the City of Paris, with the support of Caisse des Dépôts, MINI, and EDF, the FAIRE platform invites multidisciplinary teams, architects, urban planners, landscape architects, and designers to propose innovative research and experimentation projects addressing major urban challenges including climate, the materials shortage crisis, new technologies, solidarity, sanitation, and mobility. Since 2017, FAIRE has supported more than 70 multidisciplinary teams and involved upwards of a hundred stakeholders alongside winning teams in order to help develop experimental approaches.


Informations

Exhibition created by Pavillon de l'Arsenal and Poumtchak Studio 
Free admission from November 30, 2023 to January 21, 2024

BIOGRAPHY

Poumtchak is a studio engaged in scenography, design fiction, and architectural research founded in 2020 by state-certified architects Elsa Lebrun and Charly Dufour.