What if memory had the weight of iron and the fragility of dust? This autumn, the Panthéon welcomes Nicolas Daubanes for an exhibition of rare intensity. The artist, after two years in residence at the ten major sites of national memory, is displaying monumental works made of iron filings and magnetized steel powder.

An unstable material, always ready to collapse, which reflects the very precariousness of memory. From the moment we enter, we are struck by two immense drawings: the forests of Struthof, the only Nazi concentration camp located in France, and Mont-Valérien, which became a symbol of the Resistance with Missak Manouchian. Further on, an eleven-meter tower recreates, at full scale, the corridors of Montluc prison, where Jean Moulin was interned before being laid to rest in the crypt of the Pantheon.

In the transept, incandescent steel inlays on glass superimpose landscapes of the Great Sites, intersecting temporalities to blur our bearings. The journey concludes with a miniature of the Pantheon made of dental ceramic: fragile, insignificant, almost disconcerting in the face of the building's immensity. Never before had the ten Great Sites of National Memory been symbolically united under the republican dome.

By choosing the Pantheon, temple of heroes, Nicolas Daubanes contrasts the monumentality of grand narratives with the vulnerability of our memories. Between grandeur and oblivion, his work reminds us that memory is never secure: it stands, but always wavers.

Panthéon
From November 19 to March 8, 2026
Place du Panthéon, 75005 - Metro Cardinal Lemoine (Line 10)
Open daily 10am-6pm
Price: €13 - Reduced rate: €10 - Free for under 18s