The exhibition The Metro! Grand Paris in motion uniquely positions itself at the intersection of Paris’ history and the future of the metropolis by offering a dual narrative: the birth of Paris’s metropolitan network and the immense ongoing construction of the Grand Paris Express.

1 Lobby｜2 A Metro for Paris｜3 Mysteries of the Metro Construction｜4 Metro / Modernity｜5 Beyond City Limits｜6 Cinema｜7 Technical Introduction｜8 Grand Paris Express Archipelago｜9 Collective Space｜10 Multiplex of Voices

The first sequence, dedicated to the history of the metro’s construction, leads visitors through a dark, underground, and winding path, where curved walls present the historical narrative and provide context for models, paintings, and other archival documents.

The second sequence, dedicated to the Grand Paris Express station projects, is designed to be sober and minimalist in form yet monumental in scale. Unlike the parisian subway system within the city limits, which follows the main urban axes, the Grand Paris Express breaks away from this logic to create an independent underground network. To evoke this separation between the surface city and the deep infrastructure, thirty pedestals are arranged in an urban grid, independent of the gallery’s geometry.

The section titled Grand Paris Express Archipelago features a pronounced curvature in its floor plan, which contrasts with the strict arrangement of the pedestals. Although the pedestals first appear aligned and the circulation seems rectilinear, moving through the gallery reveals a more complex dynamic: as the curve intensifies, the order breaks down and the pedestals shift into an oblique layout, tracing a freer, almost floating path through this urban archipelago. This field of artifacts, contained within the walls of the Cité, presents a fragment of the major projects to come.