Love is the most beautiful emotion and feeling in the universe and manifests itself in many different ways; even today, it seems as though more and more ways are being created, but the truth is that, at its core, love is something inexplicable – or at least it cannot be explained in precise terms, or these vary from person to person.
Upon entering one of the largest galleries at the city’s Pompidou Centre, I really didn’t know what to expect from the first thing I saw in a corner. The theme is love, and numerous artists from several different generations are featured, which made me think, before seeing it all, that there would be different perspectives, including the most modern ones, and I was not mistaken.
Before going in, I noticed there was a large leaflet explaining each and every one of the works. It was in three languages, Spanish, English and French, so everyone is catered for; although the theme of love is palpable, it doesn’t really need many words. It’s always nice that the most visited museums, which attract international interest, provide so much information about what’s on display there.
The truth is that the theme of love is very interesting; it’s everywhere, in photos, images, films and songs, and its different perspectives, whether universal or personal, don’t always lead to the same interpretations; it can depend on each individual. However, I do believe it is the most powerful force in the world.
Broadly speaking, this exhibition explores love in the broadest sense, with all the implications it may entail, such as dependence, emancipation, hopes, happiness, joy and the projections we place upon others. A diverse range of works is on display, from screens showing films and short films, to talks and opinions on the subject, as well as display cases featuring related games, works of art, photographs and even modern presentations that incorporate new technologies and explore how artists relate these to the theme of love.
It questions and prompts reflection on the power of words to shape feelings, and how new technologies are changing the way people get to know one another, how this affects identities, and to what extent things are fiction or reality. Love will always be present in our lives in various forms, but here the aim is to explore the different perspectives on this emotion and the constant societal changes it must contend with.
In this post, you’ll see various works, and I’d like to tell you a little about them, or at least about the ones that made the biggest impression on me. Most of what was on display were films about love, or which refer to it, and some artists have taken these as their inspiration. On some screens there were animations, interviews and talks, and as part of the audiovisual material, there were headphones available for private listening, should anyone wish to use them; it was interesting to see how several people, generally women, were enjoying this material. I didn’t take many photos of these video presentations as there were so many of them and the rooms were almost completely dark.
But let’s start at the beginning: upon entering, the first thing you saw was a double bed with a screen showing a man, or rather, a character created using AI, and on the bed, which was covered in bows, there was a phone displaying a chat window. Visitors could type messages into it, and this supposed man would reply. It was a representation of how new technologies, such as AI, function in the context of love, and how they intervene.
Above all, I think it referred to various digital platforms, and I believe there is a clear questioning of love in this regard. Who’s to say that the person replying on the other end is human… we don’t know. The artist in this case is Aurora Mititelu, and the work is called Abel and I from 2023–2024.
In the next room, the works on display are grouped under the generic title Games of Love and Chance. Here, we see how classic marriage advertisements or digital platforms address the theme of love, and how they function as a game, complete with rules, mechanisms and strategies.
The exhibition traces the history of these advertisements and various games that supposedly bring people together, prompting us to reflect on how technology can transform the way we seek love and how we present our romantic relationships to the world.
Here, Valentina Perl highlights the mechanisms that have shaped the ways in which we seek love. A film dedicated to Joan Ball, a pioneer of online dating, is screened.
In the next section of the exhibition, I came across several screens showing videos, as I mentioned earlier, and this section was entitled: Words, Sorrows of Love. On display were poems, stammered words, declarations and songs, expressing that beautiful feeling, but also the problem of being unable to express it fully. Words that are transformed, and thus poetry emerges as a means of expressing love.
Poems by Gherasim Luca are on display, including his 1988 poem Passionately; by Mickael Berdugo, with the 2026 poem Time is Running Out and the 2025 poem The Ship of Love; and by Francois Bonenfant, with the 2013 poem What My Love Must Be.
The next room explores role-play, where we often have to adopt a role, a character, postures or narratives to delve into the theme of love. A different world that might seem unreal, full of codes and clichés, where people conform.
A blend of fantasy, avatars, scenes and identities that one assumes, fictions that question the need to project an image in order to be accepted and to form connections. Love is viewed as a theatre, where reality and fiction become intertwined.
This room featured photographs and video. The artists were: Ariane Loze, Valérie Mréjen and Ana Esteve Reig, who exhibited photographs of people portraying fantasy elves in their work entitled Love Story of the Year 2024.
‘Dangerous Games’ is the name of the next room. Here, love is understood as something that is not neutral a set of promises of union, devotion and passion, behind which relationships of domination, control or destructive ideals may lie. It invites us to reflect on the contradictions of this emotion that is ever-present in our lives.
On display is a video by the artist Louise Pressanger, entitled Hard Love (2014), and an essay on passions (2024) by Núria Guel, which presents accounts of people who, at some point, have killed, committed acts of violence or put their physical or mental well-being at risk in the name of love.
Finally, in the last room, entitled ‘Bodies at Stake’, the exhibition prompts reflection on the bodies that make up this encounter in love, and the problem that one of them is displaced to cross a border, or is transformed into an administrative document, or lies behind a screen. Here, the bodies in love are in transit: transported from one country to another, mere digital presences. A blend of love, mobility and dematerialisation.
The piece that struck me most was a letter. Next to it was the following text: ‘As part of a humanitarian project, Núria Guell organised a public competition in which she offered herself as a wife to the Cuban man who wrote her “the most beautiful love letter in the world”. A jury made up of three sex workers was tasked with selecting the winning letter, which is the one on display.’
It has been a very unique and very different art exhibition, but one that raises profound questions about the present day with regard to the theme of love.
Thank you very much for joining me today; I wish you all a very happy Sunday. See you soon. Amonet.
All photographs are my own.
