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Take a Hallucinatory Boat Ride Inside a Museum

Artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot fills the Palais de Tokyo with water so visitors can take surreal boat rides.
Exhibition view of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot "acquaalta", Palais de Tokyo (24.06 – 13.09 2015). Photo: Laurent Lecat. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Xippas, Paris ; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York ; Galerie Mario Mazzoli, Berlin © ADAGP, Paris 2015

Artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot has filled up the Palais de Tokyo contemporary art museum with water, and is asking visitors to captain boats around the museum. The exhibition, ACQUAALTA, takes its name from the annual flooding that affects the Venetian lagoon. Boursier-Mougenot recreates the watery landscape inside the museum, resulting in a multisensory experience that takes visitors on a visual, tactile, and auditory journey as they paddle through the immersive environment.

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Exhibition view of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot "acquaalta", Palais de Tokyo (24.06 – 13.09 2015). Photo: Laurent Lecat. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Xippas, Paris ; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York ; Galerie Mario Mazzoli, Berlin © ADAGP, Paris 2015

Exhibition view of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot "acquaalta", Palais de Tokyo (24.06 – 13.09 2015). Photo: Laurent Lecat. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Xippas, Paris ; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York ; Galerie Mario Mazzoli, Berlin © ADAGP, Paris 2015

Exhibition view of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot "acquaalta", Palais de Tokyo (24.06 – 13.09 2015). Photo: Laurent Lecat. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Xippas, Paris ; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York ; Galerie Mario Mazzoli, Berlin © ADAGP, Paris 2015

Exhibition view of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot "acquaalta", Palais de Tokyo (24.06 – 13.09 2015). Photo: Laurent Lecat. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Xippas, Paris ; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York ; Galerie Mario Mazzoli, Berlin © ADAGP, Paris 2015

Mougenot, who is currently representing France at the Venice Biennale with a musical work entitled, Rêvolutions, is known for his sonic installations. He considers visitors crossing the flooded area of the installation as a hallucinatory journey through the mind, most like the experience of going to a concert. In the middle of the installation, visitors can dock and watch images of other visitors rowing through the waves that are captured and projected in real time inside the pitch-black walls of the exhibition.

ACQUAALTA continues through September 13th at Palais de Tokyo. Click here for more information.

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