Stop the Machine! – 20 years of the Mrac

Sérignan: the anniversary exhibition

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Regional Museum of Contemporary Art in Sérignan, this exhibition showcases over 400 works from the three contemporary art collections of the Occitanie region: the Frac Occitanie Montpellier, Les Abattoirs, Musée-Frac Occitanie Toulouse, and the Mrac Occitanie.

This exhibition, conceived using a hybrid approach, combines traditional curatorial research with the exploration of artificial intelligence tools applied to the classification of the vast body of works and their display. Working ‘with’ and ‘against’ the machine to assert curatorial choices: this was the starting point for the project when the colours of Daniel Buren’s iconic works – *Rotation*, a site-specific piece, and *La cabane éclatée* with its coloured light boxes – emerged as the obvious choice for creating a unique and experimental exhibition itinerary.

Far removed from traditional thematic or chronological exhibitions, ‘Stop The Machine!’ offers a sensory experience moving from colour to colour, from shadow to light, and from participation to contemplation. The works of the 250 artists engage in dialogue, complement one another or clash in a free-flowing, labyrinthine journey that traverses eras, practices, generations and origins.

For this occasion, Les Abattoirs are lending nearly 100 works, celebrating the diversity of contemporary creation. Behind the success of this collaboration lies a substantial amount of work carried out by the teams responsible for the conservation and management of the artworks. Some works have undergone restoration or have been reframed, whilst others have been specially produced in collaboration with the artists.

The exhibition will thus offer visitors the chance to (re)discover Vivien Roubaud’s inflatable sculptures, Claude Viallat’s textile works, paintings by Yan Pei-Ming and Carole Benzaken, drawings by Michelangelo Pistoletto and Françoise Maisongrande, and, as the highlight, Yayoi Kusama’s famous installation, *Dots Obsession* (1998), restored especially for the exhibition.

Stop the Machine! 20 Years of the Mrac
Exhibition from 26 September 2026 to 7 March 2027
Curated by: Fabrice Bousteau
Regional Museum of Contemporary Art
Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée
146 avenue de la plage, 34410 Sérignan