“L’Argument du rêve,” or “The Argument of the Dream,” at the Fondation Pernod Ricard in Paris, brings together artist‑filmmaker Amie Barouh, visual artist Chloé Quenum and philosopher Mohamed Amer Meziane to explore dreaming as a way of inhabiting the world differently. Conceived by curator Élodie Royer, the exhibition runs from 17 February to 18 April 2026 at the foundation’s space near Gare Saint‑Lazare, and is presented as a free, immersive journey through installations, images and texts.
Structured as a key moment in the foundation’s 2025–26 season, the project reflects an ambition to forward‑looking practices that respond to contemporary, political and collective issues. Here, the dream is not treated as an escapist refuge but as a space charged with tensions, desires and forms of knowledge that disrupt conventional separations between reality and illusion. Meziane’s textual fragments, drawn from his recent philosophical work, introduce the notion of the dream as a “barzakh” – an in‑between zone where new narratives and interactions can emerge.
Each contributor activates this oneiric field in a distinct way. Barouh presents an immersive video installation that blends her own images with a community archive initiated by Albanian Roma activist Gim Furtuna, layering times, places and voices to reconstruct a dream that is at once intimate and collective. Quenum, whose practice recomposes symbols and motifs from diverse cultural traditions, develops new sculptures and moving images around the architecture and material supports of sleep, such as the headrest as a “dream support,” opening onto an invisible dimension.
The exhibition also echoes the identity of the Fondation Pernod Ricard, directed by Antonia Scintilla since 2023, as a non‑collecting institution committed to free access, critical contemporary creation and public engagement. Located at 1 cours Paul‑Ricard in the 8th arrondissement, the foundation develops exhibitions, public programs, an editorial line and off‑site projects, recently adding the Aperto research space and transforming its long‑running prize into a new support programme. Through “The Argument of the Dream,” it becomes a place where art, thought and sensory experience converge to “re‑program” our imaginations and reconsider the political and collective stakes of dreaming today.
