No pain, no gain. It is certainly no coincidence that Matthew Barney's latest work has a taste for effort and surpassing oneself. The Fondation Cartier invites the former American quarterback, now star of contemporary art, to a contemplative training session around several of his video installations and a surprising terracotta sculpture… evoking the sports equipment for weightlifters.

The tone is set, this exhibition will not be easy. For sixty minutes, Matthew Barney replays before our eyes a key match in the history of American football, a tragic encounter during which the Oakland defender Raikers Jack Tatum hits wide receiver Darryl Stingley so hard that he breaks his spinal cord, paralyzing the young man for life. Rebroadcast in a loop, this image transcends the collision, highlighting this moment when everything changes. Here the artist explores the limits of the bodies of breathless performers and aging dancers whose precise movements betray a glorious past.

Did you know? At the end of the 90s until the beginning of the 2010s, Matthew Barney shared the life of the singer Björk. A love story which gave birth to their daughter, Isadora, and to an art film without dialogue where the two characters end up transforming into whales.