“Not All Columns Have a Heart of Stone” suggests that these monumental structures conceal multiple histories and modes of construction. Imagined as an abandoned stone quarry, the exhibition brings together sculptures, bas-reliefs and sound works in which emblems and symbols are upturned, the fake becomes authentic and materials play with our sensory perception.

At the centre of the exhibition stands a large, broken column. This decapitated and hollow form is the starting point for a reflection upon the processes through which monumental structures are transformed. Inspired by the history of revolutionary destruction and mechanisms through which struggle is co-opted, the exhibition approaches the monument as a space for the construction and circulation of narratives, where memory disappearance and reinvention can come together.

Stone, plaster, copper and polystyrene blend into, mould and strip bare one another to reconstruct grandiose words from minor objects. Motifs drawn from the vocabulary of official statuary are shifted and reinterpreted, while discreet marks – graffiti, traces from the sculptor’s studio or of subsequent alterations – reveal the peripheral histories that are inscribed in the architectures of power.

With her chisels, her brushes and her scissors, Céleste Richard-Zimmermann interrogates the capacity of symbols of authority to survive, to mutate or to lose their consistence in a bold and joyful overturning of established order.

This exhibition is organised in collaboration with the CEAAC – Centre européen d’actions artistiques contemporaines à Strasbourg, where it will be on view in 2027.

Céleste Richard-Zimmerman is the recipient of the Palais de Tokyo Friends Prize 2026-2027.