Exhibition highlights Stan Douglas's career

Contemporary artist Stan Douglas has an exhibition titled Parallax running at the Jeu de Paume in Paris from October 20, 2026, until January 10, 2027. The exhibition is described as the largest monograph dedicated to the artist in France and offers an opportunity to revisit his career, which has spanned more than thirty years.

Douglas's early experience in Vancouver

Before becoming a major figure in contemporary art, Douglas was involved in Vancouver's nightlife, working at an underground club called Faces for two years shortly after his studies. His artistic practice often involves creating around historical events and then remixing their details to offer alternative perspectives that may have previously been overlooked.

Revisiting a controversial film

One of his recent works, Birth of a Nation (2025), revises the 1915 film by D.W. Griffith of the same name, which was known for its racist stereotypes and had a significant influence on the Ku Klux Klan. Douglas reworks the film to give a place to those who were excluded or erased from the original narrative.

Music as a key element in his work

Music plays a significant role in his work. In Luanda-Kinshasa (2013), Douglas stages a recording session set in the 1970s to uncover transatlantic collaborations that led to the creation of new musical styles. In ISDN (2022), he creates a fictional dialogue between rappers from London and Cairo, intertwining the Arab Spring with the riots in the United Kingdom following the killing of Mark Duggan by police.

A video installation inspired by film and folklore

Douglas's work Suspiria (2002-2003), a video installation commissioned by Documenta11 in Cassel, Germany, is inspired by the visual style of Dario Argento's 1977 film of the same name, as well as the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and the past glory of Technicolor. The installation uses images from 13 surveillance cameras in the corridors of the Hercules statue in Cassel, an octagonal tower built in the 18th century, creating an unsettling atmosphere.

Photographic series exploring forgotten histories

Other works by Douglas include photographic series such as Crowds and Riots (2008), Midcentury Studio (2010-2011), Nocturnes (2014-2015), DCTs (2016-2017), and 2001 ≠ 1848 (2017-2021). These works are noted for creating "impossible images": portraits of disappeared places, unique moments impossible to reproduce, or historical scenes erased from official archives, recreated with precision.

Douglas's approach to history and archives

Douglas often relies on archives to highlight their omissions and what has been forgotten, remixing history with a capital H. His exhibition Parallax is to be discovered at the Jeu de Paume in Paris until January 10, 2027. Konbini is a partner of the Jeu de Paume.