Stefan Sagmeister transforms two centuries of statistics into objects to be examined closely: at the Gaîté Lyrique, an exhibition that challenges pessimism.

"Things were better before." Stefan Sagmeister has spent the last few years demonstrating the opposite, with supporting data. The New York designer draws his data from the United Nations and the World Bank, then brings it to life: a graph becomes a garment, a decade an object that can be lifted, an old painting is repainted to convey something other than what it originally depicted. Conflicts, food, health, access to healthcare, climate, migration, happiness—everything is examined, on the long-term scale, the scale at which struggles ultimately transform societies.

Thirteen years after *The Happy Show*, shown at the same venue, he returns to the Gaîté Lyrique, even venturing into the restrooms, writing on the walls and transforming them into characters. The method is somewhat irritating: it manufactures optimism from statistics, and we know what a global average can mask. Sagmeister doesn't claim that everything is fine; he claims that being stunned is pointless.

A two-time Grammy winner, long since acquired by MoMA and the MAK in Vienna, he titled his latest series *Beautiful Numbers*, and his motto is summed up in three words: *Now is Better*. The challenge: to know where we come from in order to decide what to do. We enter feeling irritated. We leave checking the numbers.

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GAÎTÉ LYRIQUE
3 bis rue Papin, 75003 Paris – Metro: Réaumur-Sébastopol (lines 3, 4)
From October 15, 2026 to April 18, 2027
Every day except Monday, from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM
Box office opens September 24, 2026