Between beats and lights, the culture of Clubbing explored at the Grand Palais Immersif

Indeed, the night world – its builders and observers, its main hubs, its counter-cultures – is on the rise in Parisian cultural institutions. After the incredible exhibition Disco at the Philharmonie, which brilliantly celebrated the festive and political buzz of this revolutionary music genre, a big sister is peeking out in a few districts, within the walls of the Grand Palais Immersif. Different time frames, even a hedonistic vibe: the second complements the first, as if it all had been discussed beforehand. The disco, which gradually lost its grandeur by the late '70s (too divisive, devastated by AIDS), allowed electronic music to take over. Here too, guests are immersed in the legendary clubs where clubbing matured, and there... the visit unfolds with music, engaging the senses, moving the bodies, inviting a delightful letting-go.

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When the museum becomes a club 

Imagined by the artist-curator Pierre Giner, in collaboration with the graphic design collective Trafik and the electronic media Poptronics, the 1,200 m2 exhibition is organized around a huge dance floor where the big names rotate.tubes électro that have shaped decades of partying. We join this new generation club by tapping our feet, pulling out our Shazam, and watching, fascinated, the light installations by the artist Bruno Ribeiro, teasing our perceptions with hypnotic projections. They undeniably remind us of the monumental works of Into The Light, the spring exhibition in La Villette; it feels like they all shared the same secret. 

A global map of clubbing

More formal but just as exciting are the long corridors that explore the iconic places where the history of clubbing was built and continues to be written. Born at the Loft, an informal nightclub set up by David Mancuso in New York in 1966, the phenomenon spreads to Manchester (L’Hacienda), Ibiza (Le Pacha), and Lagos (The Shrine),), in Lisbon (LuxFrágil) and of course in Paris, with the legendary Palace, Pulp, Rex Club or Boule Noire.