Artistic Experience

Harnessing Art for change

ELEVATE, 2025
This year, we rise. Between the Grand Palais and the murmurs of the Seine, more than 15 art capsules bloom and invite us to stand up and breathe in— a giant kite-house to fly over the earth, a palaver tree to tell tales, textile flowers unfolding like sighs, a mycelium chamber where souls reconnect. The sky leans toward the earth, vertical dreams meeting horizontal truths. Beauty, here, does not shy from darkness: gleams of gold veiled in violence, oil scars, ghost nets and haunted forests, plastic tides flooding our foods. You’ll wander too through fragile frontiers —of liberty left in exile, of “normality” redrawn by neurodiverse hands, of interspecies relationship with waters, swimming upstream ‘til the glaciers.”

Discover the 2025 exhibition:

The Flying House

Victor Guérithault

Emblems of freedom, kites have brought human dreamers together for over two thousand years, linking the earth and the sky in a poetic gesture.
Victor Guérithault, a virtuoso kite designer, has created this giant kite architecture, straight out of a Gustave Eiffel’s sketchbook, which invites you to live the world in a different way.
A tribute to the aircrafts presented in this very Nave of the Grand Palais almost a century ago, this light and open Flying House does not weigh onto the world, does not slash into the ground, and does not block out the light.
Specially designed to be completely dismantled and modular, it will soon be flying off to other horizons.
Let us tell you its story…

Unfolded volume 75m3
Folded volume <2m3
Total weight 400kg

Cerf Control

Pascale-Marthine Tayou

Pascale Marthine Tayou was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in 1967. He emigrated to Sweden, then France, and has lived in Belgium since 2003. He draws his inspiration from African and European imaginary worlds, hybridising them with humour and poetry. His creations are often spectacular, although they are made from poor, recycled materials and highlight the contradictions and injustices generated by globalisation, without ever being aggressive or moralising.

We are grateful to Ruinart for supporting the creation and exhibition of his work.

Interconnection Totem

Janina Rossiter

Janina Rossiter is an ocean artivist. Through her art, she raises awareness of environmental issues and encourages positive change. She is also the author of children’s books that inspire action. The 2025 “Change Now” Totem continues the story from the previous year, highlighting the vital link between the ocean and the vegetal world. This year, France celebrates the Year of the Ocean, a cause important, as it acknowledges the critical role the ocean plays. The official ChangeNOW posters and the design of the Legacy stage (main stage) are also her creations.

PLASTICUM

Ana Brecevic

French-Croatian visual artist and paper designer, Ana Brecevic questions the fragility of life through her works, where art and environmental awareness meet. Inspired by the transformations of the ecosystems around her, on the Atlantic shore, her creations reflect mankind’s silent impact on nature.

Working with recycled paper, vegetable-based inks and embossing on upcycled fabric, she develops techniques combining meticulous cutting and natural dyeing. PLASTICUM highlights the plastic pollution of the oceans, where bleached corals and ghostly gorgonians are adorned with fragments of waste gleaned by the artist, mimicking the wonders they invade.

Ocean Apocalypse

Eugène Riconneaus

Eugène Riconneaus is a French artist, designer and pioneer in circular innovation. Raised in a fishing family along the Atlantic coast in La Rochelle, his early connection to the ocean deeply influenced his work and commitment to sustainability.

In his studio, Riconneaus began exploring bio-inspired materials, crafting his own pigments and polymers by experimenting with marine biomass, such as seaweed and seafood shells. His foray into biomimicry and material science has transformed his art and design practice into a platform for environmental activism.
Using his own skateboard wheels as brushes, Riconneaus transformed his canvas into a reversed half-pipe shape inspired by skateboarding ramps and surfing waves. The artwork showcased is made from marine litter and recycled fishnets from his native region Nouvelle Aquitaine.

MyCosmos

Côme Di Meglio

MyCosmos is a modular installation offering immersion in the heart of the mycelium. Its architect, Côme Di Meglio, has designed it to link and bring together just like within a living network.
This space of listening and presence is an invitation: please sit down and connect to yourself, to others, and to all living beings.

MyCosmos was made possible thanks to Ruinart and with the kind collaboration of MycoWorks.

This project was realized as part of the S+T+ARTS residency, funded by the European Union, in partnership with Villa Créative, French Tech Grande Provence, the University of Avignon, and the IUT of Avignon.

Rivière-Etoiles

ONYO

Onyo is an immersive art studio based in Paris, combining art, technology and sustainability. Rivière-Étoiles is a digital art installation that invites participants to give birth to a river by sharing a wish or memory for the river. In Rivière-Étoiles, it’s our memories and those of scientists that make the shooting stars appear. They spin until they become a thin stream of water that forms a river. A river born of stars. A Rivière-Étoiles. This work proposes to rehydrate our sensibilities and our wonder about this ecosystem, to give it back a sacred character to better preserve it. By integrating poetry, wishes and scientific testimonials, she creates a bridge between emotions and knowledge. In a context of mistrust towards science, this poetic installation encourages a new mediation between experts and the public, aimed at awakening awareness and inspiring action in the face of environmental challenges.

Studiolo de l’Exil

Stephan Zimmerli

Stephan Zimmerli, a trans-disciplinary artist, invited eight exiled people (from Colombia, Syria, Iranian Kurdistan, R.D.Congo, Afghanistan, Palestine/Lebanon, Ukraine, Vietnam) who found refuge in France, to describe to him the memory of a place they had lost, in order to materialise these mental visions through drawings that he executed live, with charcoal & chalk, on wooden walls. The resulting panoramic drawing forms a mental landscape, a common horizon.

Produced with the precious cooperation of Priscilla Telmon, Le Consulat Voltaire, Paris.

HERALBONY

Momoko Eguchi
Teppei Kasahara

HERALBONY is a creative company that works with artists with disabilities. They craft unique brand experiences through art and storytelling, bringing inclusivity into business. By showcasing their unique expressions and sharing their narratives, they aim to change perceptions of disability and build a society where every ‘difference’ is valued.

The artworks of HERALBONY artists Momoko Eguchi and Teppei Kasahara have been incorporated into the design of a limited edition of Nikon cameras.

We are very pleased to exhibit both the artworks and the cameras thanks to the support of HERALBONY.

Thigmonasty

Luisa Olivera

Luisa Olivera, a Honduran fashion designer based in Paris, designs textile jewellery combining plant and body movements using 3D printing. Inspired by active tension structures and thigmonasty (the tactile response of plants), she creates modular pieces using recycled materials and French dormant stocks. Her forms evoke tropical flora, particularly orchids and the mysterious Rhizanthes deceptor. A graduate of the École des Arts Décoratifs – PSL and the Institut Français de la Mode, she is supported by the Ecodesign & Creation Chair (PSL x Decathlon). She was named Design Revelation 2024 by the ADAGP and is a finalist in the Hyères Festival 2025.

Guardians of the Marsh

Gab Mejia

Gab Mejia is a Filipino photographer, multidisciplinary artist and environmental engineer.

His work is a visual narrative of the threads that weave together the climate crisis and the extinction of biodiversity, ancestral knowledge and globalisation, the socio-political and the ecological.

This photo exhibition has been made possible thanks to the support of the Prince Albert II Foundation.

La Terre vue du Ciel

Yann Arthus Bertrand

It was in the 1960s, when he became a hot-air balloon pilot to finance his study of lions in Kenya, that Yann Arthus-Bertrand discovered the earth from the sky and was introduced to aerial photography. For 35 years, he has been showing the beauty of living ecosystems, both human and non-human, and the immense risks they face, through his photos and movies.
This year, we are presenting a selection of photos offering unprecedented perspectives on the extraction of minerals needed for the energy transition, on glaciers, which have been given pride of place by the UN this year, and on the anthropogenic pressure on aquatic worlds.

We would like to thank the GoodPlanet Foundation, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, for its invaluable help in putting together this exhibition.

Drawing the future

Benjamin Marquette

Benjamin Marquette, aka Benji and the Afterproject, is an artist, landscape and urban designer who explores the (im)possible worlds of tomorrow. Between utopias and dystopias, he questions the future of our cities and proposes concrete alternatives to current models. Drawing on his expertise in urban and landscape design, he translates complex ideas into accessible visual narratives. In a comic book currently in search of a publisher, for example, he imagines the transformation of the Promenade de Flandre shopping centre into a sustainable, vibrant and resilient neighbourhood. He tackles key issues such as mobility, water management and architectural rehabilitation. His work reinterprets the shopping centre model and questions urban sprawl.

NO WOMAN’S LAND

Kiana Hayeri & Mélissa Cornet

The 14th Carmignac Photojournalism Prize is dedicated to the condition of women in Afghanistan since the return of the Taliban in 2021. For six months, photojournalist Kiana Hayeri and researcher Mélissa Cornet investigated in seven provinces, meeting more than a hundred women and girls deprived of fundamental rights: education, work, mobility. Their report sheds light on a system of patriarchal repression, supported by society, that erases women from the public sphere, which Amnesty International describes as a possible gender-based crime against humanity.

GHANA: FOLLOWING OUR E-WASTE

Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Muntaka Chasant, Bénédicte Kurzen

Winners of the Carmignac Prize, investigative anti-corruption journalist and activist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and photojournalists Muntaka Chasant and Bénédicte Kurzen (NOOR agency) have documented the more or less informal technological and electronic waste dumps in Ghana, and the trafficking that feeds them: illegal channels, a sociological study of waste pickers in Accra and an analysis of the flaws in European regulations. Their work reveals a complex ecosystem, combining corruption, migratory flows and local economic dependence.

Zambezi, Africa’s Wild Heart

Franck Vogel

Franck Vogel works as a photographer specializing in Water and Environmental issues for the international press (GEO, Stern, Bloomberg…). He is also a speaker and a documentary film director (France Television). He is best known for his work on the Bishnois, the world’s first ecologists in India. Franck is currently focusing on global Water Conflicts with the Transboundary Rivers’ project and has already completed stories on eight major rivers including the Zambezi, Africa’s Wild Heart, featured by GEO, BBC, TF1 and now exhibited at ChangeNOW.

The river project is curated by Ziqi Peng and the first volume of the book Fleuves Frontières has been released in France by La Martinière Publishing.

Ghost Nets

Erub & Pormpuraaw Arts

Pour la deuxième fois, la Galerie Stéphane Jacob nous prête des œuvres de sa collection Ghost Nets – des filets de pêche abandonnés qui continuent de hanter l’océan, d’endommager les récifs et de perturber les écosystèmes côtiers et les communautés aborigènes du nord de l’Australie. Au cours de la dernière décennie, des communautés comme Erub et Pormpuraaw ont transfiguré ces filets en œuvres d’art. Les artistes, excellents tisseurs de plantes, utilisent ce matériau accessible pour représenter la faune marine menacée. Ces créations sensibilisent à l’environnement et ont fait leur entrée dans les collections de grands musées en Australie et ailleurs.

Minuit 12

Minuit 12 is a creative and research collective for artists exploring ecological themes. Founded in 2021 by artists and dancers Pauline Lida, Jade Verda and Justine Sène, the body is their raw material for creation.

This is the 3rd time they have entrusted ChangeNOW with their work, and they are back with a marine choreography that plays with bodies caught in a large drape.

Amélie Joannidès

Amélie is a Greek French professional ballet dancer with the Opéra de Paris. She danced a wide repertory of both classical and contemporary pieces, and is now acting in the Prime series “Etoile”. She uses dance, breathwork and specific body movements to deepen emotional awareness and enhance the ability to listen—to oneself and to others—in a safe and creative way.

Oumy Cissé

Oumy Cisse started studying in the Ballet National de Marseille in 2008. She later graduated in the academy of Rosella Hightower.
As a professional she danced in Olso (Norwegian National ballet) in Germany, Austria (Tirol Landestheater) and in Paris where she had the opportunity to interpret ballet of the repertoire like Don Quichotte, Romeo and Juliette or the Nutcracker.
She also performed contemporary and neo-classical pieces from choreographers like Jiri Kylian, Nacho Duato, Mauro Bigonzetti, Uwe Sholz…
She is now a guest artist and part of the new Prime serie “Étoile”.

Erika Matagne & Johnson Saint-Félix

In 2013, Erika Matagne began her acrobat training at Arc en cirque (Chambéry). While there, she also discovered a passion for contemporary dance and felt a certain exhilaration in trampolining.
into trampolining.
In 2016, she met Johnson at the Jules Verne circus school in Amiens. They trained together for 2 years with Maxim Pervakov before joining the Académie Fratellini. They were soon immersed
into the professional world, they met many artists who inspired them in their physical research. The duo like to explore the mobility of both the acrobat and the porter, and experiment with other paths in their speciality. Together, they aspire to a symbiosis between technique and movement.

Julia Tesson

Julia Tesson joins the Centre des Arts du Cirque
Balthazar, in Montpellier. In 2015, Julia specialised in Roue Cyr, and was accepted into the prestigious École Supérieure des Arts du Cirque (ESAC) in Brussels (BE) until 2019. After her studies, she went on tour with Cirque du Soleil, where she performed a Cyr Wheel and bungee act. The PPCM has been working with Julia Tesson on European and international collaborative projects since 2020.

Fleuriane Cornet

Born in 1998 in Beauvais, she began circus from an early age at La Batoude. Then she joined the circus arts option at Châtellerault high school, where she studied several disciplines before specialising in Velo Acrobatique.
After passing her baccalauréat, she enrolled at the CNAC in Châlons-en-Champagne. Since graduating in 2020, she has worked with a number of different companies, including Raphaelle Boitelle’s Cie l’Oublie, Cheptel Aleïkoum, Satchie Noro’s Cie FURINKAI and Cirque du Soleil.