Daily Brief — October 15, 2026
Three exhibitions use reconstruction, language and material experiment to open new ways into familiar questions: how monuments are made, how knowledge gains authority, and what an empty space can contain.
'Auguste Bartholdi. La Liberté éclairant le monde' and a Virtual-Reality Experience at the Musée d’Orsay
At the Musée d’Orsay, “Auguste Bartholdi. La Liberté éclairant le monde” follows the making of the Statue of Liberty from its conception to its inauguration in New York on 28 October 1886. The exhibition, on view in Paris from 15 September 2026 through 31 January 2027, traces the project back to an 1865 conversation at the home of jurist Édouard Laboulaye, where the idea of a French monument celebrating friendship with the United States was proposed. A companion virtual-reality experience lasts 50 minutes, including 35 minutes with a headset, and takes groups of 10 through the statue’s construction and realization.
Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma will present Luis Camnitzer’s “The Dictionary of Power: The Resurrection of Simón Rodríguez” from 4 November 2026 to 17 January 2027, opening on 3 November. Curated by Mariana Silva, the exhibition connects language, education, knowledge and power through Camnitzer’s engagement with Venezuelan educator and philosopher Simón Rodríguez, who taught Simón Bolívar. Visitors can add words and ideas to “The Soup of Power,” an interactive station that lets the dictionary evolve, while Rodríguez’s aphorisms ask who produces knowledge and who has the authority to name things. The show also includes a 2025 AI-generated image of Camnitzer with Rodríguez.
STPI in Singapore will present Yoo Hyun Mi’s “The Blank Puzzle (The Image Yet to Come)” from 31 October to 12 December 2026. The Seoul-based artist has developed the project since 1998, treating the blank reverse of a puzzle piece as a structure of the subconscious and emptiness as a space of potential. The exhibition follows residencies at STPI in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and brings together sculpture, painting, photography, printmaking and papermaking. Series including “Flying Carpet,” “The Puzzler” and “One or Two” will be joined by “A Perfect Duet,” a room-within-a-room installation, plus a reading room with Yoo’s short story and a new STPI catalogue.