In a scenography conceived by the architect Hala Wardé, 6 pavilions host screenings of Nan Goldin’s works, from The ballad of sexual dependency started in 1981, to the Stendhal Syndrome, exhibited for the first time in 2024. Visitors travel through 40 years and experience different sides of life, accompanied by those she loved and who loved her: lovers, mistresses, drag queens, drug addicts, AIDS patients, opioid addicts… But also children, lovers, friends, nocturnal inhabitants, sleepers, deceased… Nan Goldin observes everything. In addition to this journey at the Grand Palais, there is a pavilion at the Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière chapel, where Sisters Saints Sybils is showcased, an artwork dedicated to her sister who died at 18 after being interned in a psychiatric hospital. Classic material for Nan Goldin’s numerous fans and a good introduction for others.
Sarah Ihler-Meyer: “This exhibition is important for those who are not yet familiar with Nan Goldin’s work. It includes slideshows accompanied by music. This mode of presentation is interesting because it is how she first became known, in bars, before her photos were exhibited in museums. The setup introduces the genre of amateur photography into the field of art, with intentional errors, blurs. It is composed of a series of images taken by Goldin in the 70s to 90s and 2000s, which she pieces together. It is a work on memory, constantly recomposing itself, rearranging according to different perspectives.”
Corinne Rondeau: “Starting from the 2010s, there are Nan Goldin’s detox cures, then aging. She no longer takes part in the unrestrained life she documented, moving from ethics to aesthetics. What remains from this exhibition is only an aesthetics that dilutes the political power of the first two slideshows, The Other Side and The ballad of sexual dependency.”
Nan Goldin. This Will Not End Well, from March 18 to June 21, 2026 at the Grand Palais Excerpts from “Tam tam, etc” Featuring Nan Goldin on France Inter, November 28, 2003.
