Annette Messager. One Swallow Does Not Make a Spring

Exhibition catalogue: Annette Messager. One Swallow Does Not Make a Spring, presented at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris (14 April – 20 September 2026).

For the first time, Annette Messager’s work is examined through the lens of animality. Although animals have been a constant feature of her work since the 1970s, they have never before been the subject of such an in-depth exploration. Here, the animal world becomes a mirror of human passions and impulses: they resemble us, parody us, and reveal us.

Annette Messager, born in 1943 in Berck-sur-Mer, is today one of the most internationally renowned contemporary French artists. In 2005, she was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, and the Centre Pompidou dedicated a major retrospective exhibition to her in 2007, which was subsequently shown in several other museums around the world (Tokyo, Seoul).

More recently, her work has been exhibited at the LaM, taking over the Lille Métropole Museum of Modern Art for a major exhibition in 2022. She combines a wide variety of techniques (cut-outs, collage, painting, photography, writing, embroidery) and all manner of unusual materials (soft toys, taxidermied animals, fabrics, photographs, and more). Her work draws on diverse influences, from popular imagery to art brut and high art, creating a subtle duality. Constantly blending realism and fantasy, she seeks to explore questions of identity and examine the female condition.

The exhibition, curated by Colin Lemoine, presents a unique dialogue between the artist’s personal collections and those of the museum. Through monumental installations, iconic works and previously unseen pieces, Annette Messager alternately brings together macrocosm and microcosm, spectacle and intimacy, drama and humour, words and images. The animals she depicts become mirrors of our humanity; they parody our behaviour, mimic our excesses and embody our desires and vices.