Vivre avec / Living With

For the first time, the exhibition Living With arrives in France. Originally conceived by Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane (in association with Eric Daniel-Lacombe and Martin Duplantier) for the French Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, the project has since traveled to Belem, as well as the São Paulo and Chicago architecture biennials. Later this year, it will also be shown in New Zealand and at the SCI-Arc in Los Angeles.

The exhibition’s arrival at the Frac Centre-Val de Loire recontextualizes the contemporary research of Living With within one of the world’s most important collections of experimental architecture. The original, reused exhibition panels from Venice are placed in dialogue with the Frac’s collection, pairing radical visions, primarily from the 1960s–70s, with contemporary responses to today's climatic and political instability. This exchange features a constellation of visionary practices—including Superstudio, Gianni Pettena, Yona Friedman, Guy Rottier, and environmental pioneers such as James Wines (SITE), Graham Stevens, or the duo Günther Domenig & Eilfried Huth, to name a few. By highlighting the prescience of these once “utopian” ideas, the exhibition reaffirms the vital necessity of keeping architectural experimentation alive.