Shengqi Kong at Palais des Beaux-art

Discover Shengqi Kong’s sculptures in the exhibition “Dear Melpomene” at the Palais des Beaux-Arts.

Dear Melpomene is a call to thwart classical myths to convey other stories closer to our daily lives. The exhibition invites us to listen, feel, and breathe together, in a poetic exploration of what connects us.

Exploring our intimate tragedies and the stories we can tell from them, the exhibition is an incantation to foster spiritual and political alliances, to “magicize” our struggles, to develop our imagination, and to maintain hope. The works presented embody desires for resistance and solidarity; they share speculative cosmogonies capable of translating the plurality of memories that shape our contemporary society and cultivating our interdependencies while respecting each person’s differences.

Dear Melpomene interweaves around a hundred works from the collections, by students and studio heads, and international artists, presenting a transhistorical display spanning the period from the late 17th century to the present day. Most have never been exhibited before—recently acquired by the School or produced specifically for the exhibition—while others have not yet circulated within the institutional community.

European Night of Museums: Saturday, May 17, 2025, the exhibition will be open free of charge from 7 p.m. to midnight.