Les Voix de la Vallée

Olivier Schwartz and Ariel Kyrou

Viruses as friends, viruses as enemies… Science and science fiction

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This night class is available on podcast.


About the night class

As part of the exhibition The Valley by Fabrice Hyber, the Fondation Cartier invites director of the Virus & Immunity Unit at the Institut Pasteur Olivier Schwartz and writer and explorer of future imaginary worlds Ariel Kyrou to participate in the Voices of the Valley evening class series. Within the exhibition spaces, the two guest speakers discuss the hypotheses proposed by Fabrice Hyber in his paintings before a live audience.

Over the course of this evening, based on the works Placenta, Herb, Tubercule, and Grain de sable, the two experts discuss viruses, post-humanism, and the mutation of living species.

This live discussion will be broadcast simultaneously on the websites of the Fondation Cartier and *Duuu Radio, and in the form of podcasts via the main platforms.


With the participation of:

  • Picture Institut Pasteur.
    Olivier Schwartz

    Olivier Schwartz has been the director of the Virus & Immunity Unit at the Institut Pasteur since 2007. Author of 250 scientific publications, he is a specialist in human pathogenic viruses and their impact on the immune system. His research focuses on the HIV, Chikungunya, Zika, SARS-CoV-2, and Monkeypox viruses. The scientific questions he explores in his work are fundamental, aimed at understanding how viruses work, but also applied, in terms of improving treatment and vaccination strategies. He was Scientific Director of the Institut Pasteur from 2018 to 2019. He has also acted as co-organizer or scientific advisor of various exhibitions combining the arts and sciences, including Pasteur’ Spirit in 2010 and Sans Gêne by Fabrice Hyber in 2012; Organoïde-Pasteur, an artistic-scientific program at the Institut Pasteur; Vaincre le virus by Barthelemy Toguo at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2016; Dans la bibliothèque de Pasteur avec Hervé Di Rosa in 2017, at the Institut Pasteur; and Micromonde: vivre avec les petits êtres, an exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly in 2022.

  • Picture Actu SF.
    Ariel Kyrou

    Ariel Kyrou uses science fiction as a way of thinking about (and remedying) today’s world. An approach developed in his last two essays: Dans les imaginaires du futur (ActuSF, October 2020, to be reedited by Hélios in March 2023) and ABC Dick (ActuSF, October 2021). He oversaw the anthology of science-fiction short stories called Nos futurs solidaires (Actu SF and the Laboratoire des solidarités de la Fondation Cognacq-Jay, March 2022) and was the co-writer of the documentary film Les mondes de Philip K. Dick (Nova Prod, Arte, 2016), author of L’emploi est mort, vive le travail! (Mille et Une Nuits / Fayard, 2015) with Bernard Stiegler, and Techno Rebelle, Un siècle de musiques électroniques (Denoël, 2002). Editorial director of the Laboratoire des solidarités of the Fondation Cognacq-Jay and chief editor of the website solidarum.org in this role, he is also the associate director of Moderne Multimédias, as well as a member of the editorial collective of Multitudes magazine, and professor of contemporary culture and future imaginary worlds at the Université de Versailles / Saint-Quentin en Yvelines.


Practical information

Additional information

Estimated duration: 1 hour.
Discussions in French.
Free seating within the limit of available spaces.
Access to the classroom where the evening class is held upon presentation of the exhibition ticket.
This ticket includes access to the evening class on the date chosen when booking, as well as entry to the exhibition that same day from 5pm.
The evening classes are broadcast live on the websites of the Fondation Cartier and *Duuu Radio, before being made available in the form of podcasts.
Latecomers will not be allowed access to the event so as not to disturb the speakers or interfere with the audio recording. We thank the audience in advance for their punctuality.

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Past night classes