Tunnel of love: Dan Graham’s Passage Intime, at Marian Goodman Paris

The French are showing Dan Graham plenty of amour this year. The American writer, curator and pioneering conceptual artist currently has a solo exhibition at MAMO, on the rooftop of Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse in Marseille. And this week, a new Graham exhibition opened at Marian Goodman's Paris space, centred on Passage Intime – the latest in a series of sculpture/architecture 'pavilions' Graham has been working on since the late 1970s.
Passage Intime is essentially two stainless steel curves holding two way mirrors. It allows for two people to walk between the curved screens at the same time, though with a degree of forced intimacy. Which is the point. 'Passage Intime can be seen either as a Tunnel of Love or as a frightening tight squeeze,' says Graham. 'A claustrophobic and uncomfortable spatial experience or an intimate body moment.' This discombobulation is compounded by the distorting effects of the curved two-way mirrors, for those inside and outside the passage. The work Graham says, is part 'fun house', part exploration of Lacanian theory.
The show also includes the first screening of Graham's 2004 satirical rock opera Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty; a collaboration with puppeteer Phillip Huber (whose CV includes Being John Malkovich and John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together), set designer Laurent Bergen and art-rockers Japanther.
On 12 October, Passage Intime will begin a month-long residency in Place Vendôme, partnered with another of Graham's pavilions, Two Nodes, currently on display at MAMO.
The work comprises two stainless steel curves holding two way mirrors. It allows for two people to walk between the curved screens at the same time, though with a degree of forced intimacy
A screening of Graham’s rock opera Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty, created with the help with satrical puppeteering heavyweight Phillip Huber, accompanies the installation
Graham describes Passage Intime as ’part fun house’ and part exploration of Lacanian theory, the space combining the distorted reflections of the former with the psychoanalytic instability of the latter
Next month, Passage Intime will move to the Place Vendôme to accompany Graham’s other pavillion, Two Nodes
INFORMATION
Website
Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery Paris. ’Dan Graham’ is on view until 8 October
ADDRESS
Marian Goodman Paris
79 Rue du Temple
75003 Paris
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
London Fashion Week A/W 2025 highlights: S.S. Daley to Fashion East
Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss picks the best of London Fashion Week A/W 2025, from S.S. Daley’s ode to Marianne Faithfull to a new class at Fashion East
By Jack Moss Published
-
'It’s indisputable that craft has enormous value socially, culturally, economically': interrogating the case for craft in contemporary life
Ahead of next week's 21st edition of Collect, the world's leading fair for collectible craft, we sit down with Natalie Melton, executive director of the Crafts Council, to talk about making a living from making
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
This narrow home in San Francisco is a modern take on treehouse living
In San Francisco, a narrow home by Dumican Mosey Architects, Dolores Heights House, is a demonstration of how to make the most of an awkward plot, creating an expansive home overlooking the trees
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Inside Jack Whitten’s contribution to American contemporary art
As Jack Whitten exhibition ‘Speedchaser’ opens at Hauser & Wirth, London, and before a major retrospective at MoMA opens next year, we explore the American artist's impact
By Finn Blythe Published
-
Frieze Sculpture takes over Regent’s Park
Twenty-two international artists turn the English gardens into a dream-like landscape and remind us of our inextricable connection to the natural world
By Smilian Cibic Published
-
Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self’s colourful ode to the landscape of her childhood
Tschabalala Self’s new show at Finland's Espoo Museum of Modern Art evokes memories of her upbringing, in vibrant multi-dimensional vignettes
By Millen Brown-Ewens Published
-
Wanås Konst sculpture park merges art and nature in Sweden
Wanås Konst’s latest exhibition, 'The Ocean in the Forest', unites land and sea with watery-inspired art in the park’s woodland setting
By Alice Godwin Published
-
Pino Pascali’s brief and brilliant life celebrated at Fondazione Prada
Milan’s Fondazione Prada honours Italian artist Pino Pascali, dedicating four of its expansive main show spaces to an exhibition of his work
By Kasia Maciejowska Published
-
John Cage’s ‘now moments’ inspire Lismore Castle Arts’ group show
Lismore Castle Arts’ ‘Each now, is the time, the space’ takes its title from John Cage, and sees four artists embrace the moment through sculpture and found objects
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
Gerhard Richter unveils new sculpture at Serpentine South
Gerhard Richter revisits themes of pattern and repetition in ‘Strip-Tower’ at London’s Serpentine South
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Peter Blake’s sculptures spark joy at Waddington Custot in London
‘Peter Blake: Sculpture and Other Matters’, at London's Waddington Custot, spans six decades of the artist's career
By Hannah Silver Published