François Morellet would have been one hundred years old: the Cité de l'architecture celebrates the playful surveyor who made buildings wobble, in contrast to his life-size Romanesque and Gothic portals.

He called them his "disintegrations." He would take a perfectly straight facade, a grand staircase, and make it waver by the slightest thing: a one-degree shift, a doubled line, a neon sign placed askew. François Morellet played this trick on architects for fifty years, with absolute courtesy. The Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine is dedicating to his centenary the exhibition that only it could mount.

The masterpiece of this genre can be seen at the Louvre. In 2010, the museum entrusted him with the Lefuel staircase, a pure Second Empire gem, where he designed seven stained-glass windows in black and white, made using traditional leaded techniques. The principle can be summed up in a single sentence: he takes the motif of the existing railings and subtly shifts it. The eye takes a moment to grasp it, then the building seems to tremble. "The Spirit of the Staircase," he titled it, for he named his works like a witty remark.

The process dates back to the 1950s, when he built his canvases on grids and decisions left to chance. Then the line breaks free from the frame, and rigor produces a delightful disorder. One hundred and forty monumental interventions remain, in train stations, gardens, and squares, which the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie displays in its plaster cast gallery. The playful surveyor faces off against life-size Romanesque portals and Gothic tympana: the duel promises to be interesting.

Did you know? As a co-founder of GRAV, he was already inventing labyrinths in 1963 where the visitor became the artwork. Kinetic art owes him a great deal.

To continue: all the events of the Morellet centenary, our top new exhibitions in Paris and, at the Cité, Kennedy Yanko and Ma Kelu.

CITY OF ARCHITECTURE AND HERITAGE
From October 16, 2026 to January 3, 2027
1 Place du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris - Metro: Trocadéro (Lines 6/9)
Open daily except Tuesdays, 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM, Thursdays until 9:00 PM
Admission: €13 - Reduced rate: €10 - Free for under 18s