From April 4 to August 24, 2025, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris invites visitors on a sensory journey into the colorful and vibrant world of Henri Matisse with the virtual reality experience “Dance Dance Dance – Matisse ”, co-produced by Lucid Realities and TSVP.
This poetic immersion, at the crossroads of visual art, music, and dance, resonates with the museum’s permanent collection, which includes the mural frescoes La Danse inachevée and La Danse de Paris (on view on the 3ʳᵈ floor of the MAM)—two magnificent and essential milestones in the process leading to La Danse de Merion, a monumental work now adorning the alcoves of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.
The experience is also part of the temporary exhibition Matisse and Marguerite – Through Her Father’s Eye, presented at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. The theme of dance and the figure of Marguerite—Matisse’s daughter and a recurring model—run through the artist’s body of work and allow for an exploration of both its richness and uniqueness: whether through his striking ability to depict movement or to convey the emotion of a filial bond.
Project Origins: A Favorable Context and Personal Commitment from the Directors
The relevance of themes such as dance and the figure of Marguerite stems from the favorable context in which this project was conceived: the 70ᵗʰ anniversary of Henri Matisse’s death, commemorated in 2024 through a series of events and exhibitions, including one organized by the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. Within this constellation of tributes and retrospectives, virtual reality stands out, as noted by producers Christie Molia (TSVP) and Chloé Jarry (Lucid Realities):
The desire for a VR experience offering the public a more intimate and sensory connection with Matisse’s work came naturally to us.
Chloé Jarry and Christie Molia
In this light, Dance Dance Dance – Matisse emerged as an obvious choice:
It follows a red thread that runs throughout Matisse’s entire oeuvre: dance, structured around a central motif of his artistic expression—La Danse de Merion—and its two preparatory stages: La Danse de Paris and La Danse inachevée.
Chloé Jarry and Christie Molia
But beyond this commemorative context, it is also a deeply personal and emotional journey that shapes this creation, initiated by co-directors Agnès Molia and Gordon. As Agnès Molia recalls:
The Romanian Blouse changed my father’s life. Pinned to the wall of a sacristy, an unconventional priest explained to him—while he was still a child—why it was beautiful, and a world opened up: he became a painter, sculptor, architect. At that same age, I was destined for dance, and Matisse brought us together, in and through movement. But beyond color, composition, balance—how to interpret La Danse de Paris, which we often went to admire at the Musée d’Art Moderne?
Agnès Molia
A Collective, Faithful, and Plural Creation
With Danse Danse Danse – Matisse, Agnès Molia and Gordon present their third immersive co-direction, following “Champollion, the Egyptian” (co-produced by TSVP, Lucid Realities, the Louvre, and the Louvre-Lens) and “Van Gogh’s Palette” (co-produced with TSVP, Lucid Realities, Musée d’Orsay, and VIVE Arts). As in the latter, the directors demonstrate a profound respect for the artist’s work: none of Matisse’s original creations are altered or modified.
This commitment to fidelity is based on a rigorous scholarly approach, supported by close collaboration with the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris and the exhibition curator Charlotte Barat, as well as the Barnes Foundation and the artist’s heirs.
By working hand in hand with curator Charlotte Barat, we ensured a nearly scientific, rigorous approach. All quotes used in the experience are authentic, drawn from Matisse’s own texts and interviews. This attention to authenticity is also the result of a close collaboration with Georges Matisse, guardian of the artist’s legacy.
Chloé Jarry and Christie Molia
The project’s richness also lies in the diversity of mediums involved: visual arts (painting, charcoal, sculpture, cut-outs), architecture, writing, music, and dance intersect to form a total immersive artwork. The Dance is rediscovered in a new light: each brushstroke, each line of the drawing comes alive—animated by Sarah Silverblatt-Buser’s choreography and the evocative music of the duo The Blaze.
This diversity is reflected in the artistic direction, structured around three visual textures—gouache, charcoal, and paper cut-outs—in resonance with the creative process and technical stages that led to the various versions of The Dance. Cut-out paper plays a central role. Introduced in the first scene with a giant pair of scissors slicing into New York Bay, it serves as set design, a tool for changing scale, and a formal resolution where movement bursts forth not from volume, but from flatness. This artistic choice, championed by the producers, reveals Matisse’s process of trial and error during the creation of La Danse de Merion:
But to get something that lives, that sings, I had to feel my way. By creating these colored paper cut-outs, I didn’t know I was approaching what was meant for me. Soon, I would find the perfect balance by making these cut-outs, by drawing with scissors.
Henri Matisse
A VR Experience to “Live More Fully with Matisse”
Dance Dance Dance – Matisse offers a new perspective on the painter’s work through a sensory experience centered on vital movement and human connection, brought to life by Sarah Silverblatt-Buser’s choreography. The introduction of the moving body into La Danse de Paris and La Danse de Merion recalls the Ballets Russes, the farandole of the Moulin de la Galette, and the desire to access the emotional core of the work—guided by Matisse’s own confession: “Dance is life: expressive movements, rhythms, music… I live more in dance.”
To convey this vitality, it was necessary to break free from the limits of two-dimensionality, as the co-directors explain:
To ‘live more fully’ with Matisse, Gordon and I chose to put dancing bodies back at the heart of creation—to move beyond the second dimension and reach for volume, for the breath of dance—something only the three-dimensionality of VR can offer.
Agnès Molia and Gordon
The viewer is thus invited into Matisse’s creative process—confronting colors, textures, gestures, forms, and materials—in a universe of folded and cut paper. The alternating visual atmospheres—sometimes bright, sometimes darker—reflect the tension between introspection and creative impulse, between doubt and genius. This contemporary reinterpretation of a modern painting masterpiece, in the words of the producers, “invites the audience to become an active participant in the artwork—to feel the texture, the color, and the energy of art within their body and mind.”
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Dates: April 4 – August 24, 2025
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. – 5:15 p.m. (until 8:45 p.m. on Thursdays)
Ticket price: €7
Location: Musée d’Art Moderne, Hall
11 avenue du Président Wilson, 75116 Paris