The Making of Les Immatériaux

The exhibition Les Immatériaux was presented at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1985. Curated by the philosopher Jean-François Lyotard and design theoretician Thierry Chaput, it is widely regarded as a landmark in the history of postmodern philosophy, as well as for discourses around art, science and digital culture.

Broeckmann’s book provides the first comprehensive account of the preparation of this epochal event. It shows how the exhibition resulted from multiple, collaborative and interdisciplinary trajectories in such diverse fields as contemporary art, architecture, science, and network media. Based on extensive archival research, The Making of Les Immatériaux offers detailed insights into the curatorial process. Throughout its ten chapters, the book highlights the different forms of cooperation among the people involved in the conception of the exhibition, including Lyotard, Chaput, the team at the Centre de Création Industrielle, and their consultations with artists, theorists, and scientists.

Les Immatériaux marks a pivotal point in the history of exhibitions in the 20th century because it gave important impulses for the organisation, design and structure of interdisciplinary exhibitions. Broeckmann discusses the place of Les Immatériaux in the broader context of this history, examining the epistemology of exhibits, curatorial agency, and interdisciplinarity in research networks. The book takes up current questions about the relationship between materiality and immateriality, between subjectivity and thinghood, and shows how Les Immatériaux continues to offer a significant contribution to debates that over the last decades have become ever more urgent.