Lygia Pape Wants You to Participate

PARIS — This year, Paris transitioned into la rentrée, the annual return from summer leisure to the routine of daily life, not with a gradual acclimatization, but with a palpable jolt. What typically resembles a seasonal transformation—packed trains, buzzing café terraces, and bustling schools—has morphed into a reflection of widespread national unrest. With five prime ministers in just two years, a disjointed National Assembly, and the growing prominence of Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, France appears deeply divided. Transportation strikes, student occupations, and museum closures have transformed the back-to-school period into a series of protests.

On a warm September day, merely two days after significant protests against austerity measures proposed by Prime Minister François Bayrou’s administration unfolded, volunteers from an open call—inviting participants “from 7 to 99”—revived “Divisor” (1968), a pivotal performance by famed Brazilian avant-garde artist Lygia Pape, right in the streets of Paris. This event inaugurated the Festival d’Automne—a three-month showcase of dance, theater, music, performance, and visual arts—and marked the debut of Lygia Pape: Weaving Space, the artist’s premier solo exhibition in France at the Bourse de Commerce–Pinault Collection.

I arrived an hour ahead of the performance and wandered through the exhibition rooms. The show is compact yet thoughtfully curated, presenting a concentrated burst of some of Pape’s most significant works, reflecting the vastness of her experimental artistry across various mediums. One gallery features the short film “O ovo” (The Egg, 1967), where Pape interacts with the rigid surface of a white cube on a beach, tearing through and burrowing into the sand—mathematics yielding to human form. Across the space, a panoramic video of “Divisor,” performed at Rio de Janeiro’s Museu de Arte Moderna in 2010, covers an entire wall. Also on display is “Livro da Criação” (Book of Creation, 1959–60), an essential piece from Pape’s Neo-Concrete phase, consisting of 16 artist books that reveal pop-up sculptures, including triangles flaring like flames, a fan unfurling into a wheel, and a red circle morphing into a clock—a cosmos brought to life through our engagement.

Additionally showcased is the impressive “Livro Noite e Dia III” (Book of Night and Day III, 1963–76), made up of 365 intricately carved wooden units arranged into a dynamic spectrum of blacks, whites, and grays that depict the annual cadence of light and darkness. Accompanied by a stunning collection of Tecelares, woodcut prints Pape created throughout the 1950s featuring intricate geometric designs, this exhibition culminates with the breathtaking “Ttéia 1, C” (2001–7), where hundreds of copper wires stretch across a pitch-black room, illuminated by spotlights, crafting an immersive experience that shifts with every viewer’s movement.

Back outside, “Divisor” amplifies that same participatory essence on a collective scale. More than 100 participants ducked under a lengthy white sheet, with their heads emerging through slits, as they flowed from the back of La Bourse’s striking neoclassical structure, moving like a gigantic white amoeba across the esplanade towards La Canopée des Halles. Holding up their phones, some documented themselves and fellow participants. The atmosphere was lively and jubilant; young children at the forefront added a playful spirit to the procession.

As I walked alongside this unusual and captivating sight, it struck me that “Divisor” lasts because it invokes the sensation of community as a tangible experience rather than a mere idea—the touch of hair, the heft of fabric, the awkward exchanges with strangers, and freedom challenged in a public arena. Nonetheless, this reenactment bears the imprint of its framework—the museum, social media, the structure of the festival. Thus, the Parisian rendition of “Divisor” felt less like a historical relic and more like a vibrant diagnostic: a fleeting republic woven from cloth, bodies, and hashtags.

Lygia Pape: Weaving Space is on view at Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection (2 Rue de Viarmes, Paris, France) through January 26, 2026. The exhibition was curated by Emma Lavigne and Alexandra Bordes.