Anne et Patrick Poirier - Odyssey of Oblivion

Exhibition catalogue: Anne and Patrick Poirier. Odyssey of Oblivion, presented at the Nantes Museum of Art (22 May – 30 August 2026).

Odyssey of Oblivion brings together works by Anne and Patrick Poirier, whose artistic practice, developed since the late 1960s, is characterised by the fragility of civilisations.

Spanning two spaces – one white in the Patio, the other black in the Oratory Chapel – the exhibition at the Nantes Museum of Art presents a collection of works – both historical and new – centred around "La Cité des ombres", a site-specific installation evoking visions of a necropolis. Defining themselves as practitioners of a ‘parallel archaeology’, the artists create a landscape in which dreams, myths, ruins, personal histories and contemporary upheavals interplay, offering a profoundly poetic vision of time.

Richly illustrated with images of the artworks and the exhibition, the catalogue sheds light on how this unique artistic duo transforms relics, traces and architectural forms into a vast theatre of memory. It features an unpublished interview conducted by Marie Dupas, as well as texts by Emmanuelle Delapierre, Milan Garcin, Laure Martin-Poulet and Martina Mazzotta.

Contents

Odyssey of Oblivion
an interview with
Anne and Patrick Poirier, by Marie Dupas

Memory as a Compass
Laure Martin

Fragile Landscapes
Milan Garcin

Towards a Grand Theatre of Memory by Anne and Patrick Poirier
Martina Mazzotta

List of works on display