Paris is no stranger to groundbreaking exhibitions, but “Echoes of the Eye – Visions de Deux Collectionneurs,” which opens this week alongside Paris Photo, offers an experience that defies simple categorization. This collection, assembled by Olympia Napoléon and Arnaud Cabri-Wiltzer, is a testament to the intersections between the seen and the unseen, memory and impermanence. Set within the historic walls of a former bank at 5 Cité Rougemont, the space itself reflects the exhibition’s themes of presence, absence, and transformation.
The title, Echoes of the Eye, immediately signals the intent of this gathering of works: a visual echo, where each piece acts as a mirror, refracting and amplifying the perceptions of its viewer. In the same way that sound reverberates and reshapes within a new space, these artworks invite viewers to experience evolving echoes, ones that transform with each encounter and shift across time and perspective.
The artists selected for this exhibition span generations and continents, creating an intercultural and intertemporal dialogue that illuminates the thematic boundaries Napoléon and Cabri-Wiltzer explore. Through photography, painting, and sculpture, these artists probe the dimensions of light and shadow, memory and erosion, offering a poignant reminder that art exists as much in the perception as in the object itself. The visitor is, in a sense, a co-creator—bringing their own interpretations and insights to works that resist any fixed reading.
Installation view of “Echoes of the Eye: Art as a Resonant Portal” in Paris.
Art as Resonance: Lee Ufan, Yto Barrada, David Hockney, and Man Ray
The juxtaposition of celebrated artists like Lee Ufan, Yto Barrada, David Hockney, and Man Ray reveals striking commonalities across time and style. Lee Ufan’s minimalist works, for example, embrace both presence and absence through the interplay of forms and empty space, each stroke acting as a pulse that leaves a lasting impression.
The presence of Man Ray, known for his Dadaist and surrealist experiments, adds yet another layer of complexity. His work challenges the boundaries of photography as a medium, transforming it into a tool not only for representation but for distortion and reconstruction. His oeuvre, with its uncanny juxtapositions, underscores a central theme of Echoes of the Eye: the idea that art can reveal hidden truths by unsettling our visual assumptions. With Yto Barrada’s politically charged yet visually alluring pieces, the exhibition is further enriched, inviting viewers to contemplate the layered histories that shape identity and belonging.
Installation view of “Echoes of the Eye: Art as a Resonant Portal” in Paris.
Light as Transformation: Sugimoto and McCall
A notable highlight is Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Theatres series, where long-exposure photography transforms cinematic light into ethereal forms. By capturing an entire film in a single frame, Sugimoto achieves a strikingly paradoxical effect—a stillness that contains movement, a permanence that holds the ephemeral. His theaters become spaces of memory and forgetfulness, visually capturing the ghostly afterimages that linger once the projector has shut off. This is especially evocative in Echoes of the Eye, where the exhibition space itself, a once-bustling bank, has been stripped of its original function and repurposed as a place of reflection.
Anthony McCall’s Smoke Screens (2017) similarly manipulates light, shadow, and presence. McCall’s piece invites viewers to step into the artwork, creating an immersive environment that is less about seeing and more about experiencing. As light and fog interact to create intangible yet vivid shapes, viewers are drawn into an exploration of visibility and form. McCall’s work in particular embodies the concept of resonance; as audiences navigate the piece, their movements alter the very nature of what they perceive, creating a unique visual and spatial echo.
Installation view of “Echoes of the Eye: Art as a Resonant Portal” in Paris.
Unexpected Dialogues: Ruth Bernhard and Zilia Sanchez
The exhibition’s structure reveals surprising resonances, especially in the pairing of Ruth Bernhard’s photography and Zilia Sanchez’s sculpture. Bernhard, renowned for her mastery of light and shadow in the photographic medium, transforms the human form into a landscape, emphasizing curves, textures, and contrasts. Her work feels both intimate and monumental, a paradox that Sanchez’s sculptural forms echo with uncanny precision. Sanchez’s pieces, with their undulating shapes and organic forms, seem to respond directly to Bernhard’s photographs, despite their differing mediums. The two artists together create an unspoken conversation that transcends both time and geography.
Installation view of “Echoes of the Eye: Art as a Resonant Portal” in Paris.
Art Beyond Borders and Time
Echoes of the Eye challenges viewers to see beyond the temporal and spatial confines of the gallery walls. It is not merely a showcase of works by well-known names; rather, it is a visionary project that asks profound questions about the relationship between art and its audience. Through its deliberate curation and thematic focus, the exhibition dismantles traditional hierarchies, presenting each piece as a vital thread in a tapestry of interwoven influences and ideas.
Napoléon and Cabri-Wiltzer have crafted a space where viewers can experience art not as a passive engagement but as a resonant act. Here, memory and forgetting, light and shadow, presence and absence are more than binaries—they are the shifting landscapes that each viewer navigates and reshapes. In this exhibition, one realizes that art does not exist in a vacuum but reverberates across time and space, taking on new meanings with each encounter.
For those fortunate enough to attend Echoes of the Eye during Paris Photo, the experience will likely linger far beyond their visit. This exhibition reminds us of the power of art to act as a living echo, one that continues to sound and shift as we carry its images and ideas with us. It is an invitation not just to observe but to participate in the ongoing conversation between the visible and invisible, a dialogue that ultimately reveals as much about ourselves as it does about the artworks on display.
In this resonant space, visitors find themselves at the intersection of light, memory, and perception—an experience as fluid and transformative as the art itself. And as Echoes of the Eye makes clear, the act of seeing is only the beginning of a much deeper journey.
Installation view of “Echoes of the Eye: Art as a Resonant Portal” in Paris.
