Miu Miu is partnering with artist Alice Diop for Art Basel Paris The brand is giving given carte blanche to the French filmmaker
For the 2026 edition of Art Basel Paris, Italian fashion house Miu Miu reaffirms its cultural commitment by renewing its official partnership with the fair's public program for the third consecutive year. For this new edition, Miuccia Prada has given carte blanche to French filmmaker Alice Diop. The director will present Geste de Consolation, a major project conceived for the Palais d’Iéna, headquarters of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council and the iconic location for the brand's runway shows.
Conceived as a continuation of her 2025 short film Fragments for Venus for the Miu Miu Women’s Tales series, this project marks the filmmaker's first foray into exhibition-making. Alice Diop extends her cinematic vision beyond the screen, transforming the space into a narrative environment. The exhibition brings together photography, film, sculpture, poetry, dance, and music around a central question: how Black women have been represented throughout art history, and how contemporary creation can offer acts of repair in response to an often fetishizing gaze.
An immersive journey in four sequences
Conceived like a cinematic montage where each space connects like shots in a film, the scenography invites visitors to move through four distinct atmospheres:
The itinerary begins with a photograph by South African artist Zanele Muholi, followed by a two-screen video installation designed by Alice Diop that combines unsettling archival imagery with consoling film excerpts.
Visitors then enter Chambre à soi, a warm living room and library set within the monumental concrete structure of the Palais d’Iéna. Arranged on carpets designed by artist Mary Lee Bendolph, this space offers access to the foundational texts that have shaped the director's thinking, creating a portrait of a 21st-century Black female thinker.
At the center of the exhibition, the space opens into a performance arena where texts by authors such as Audre Lorde, Zadie Smith, June Jordan, and Marie Ndiaye are read live by a rotating cast of performers. This stage also hosts a choreographic adaptation by Ivorian artist Nadia Beugré, as well as musical performances by American jazz composer Angel Bat Dawid alongside her ensemble, Sistazz of the Nitty-Gritty.
The journey concludes before Sentinel (Mami Wata), a monumental bronze sculpture standing nearly five meters tall by artist Simone Leigh. Representing a West African water spirit encircled by a serpent, this silent work watches over the entire space as a protective guardian.