Transparency

  • Exhibition
  • Ages 2+
  • From to

Art and science come together in the first exhibition of the Palais des enfants, which invites toddlers to pre-teens on an extraordinary adventure to unlock the secrets of transparency. Along the way, they can play, touch, observe, ask questions and above all feel a sense of wonder!

This exhibition is a special collaborative project between the GrandPalaisRmn and Palais de la Découverte.

Palais de la découverte (Paris 8)

In brief

Discover Transparency, the inaugural exhibition of the Palais des enfants, an original space designed for 2–10-year-olds, combining art and science! 

Thanks to displays juxtaposing real artworks alongside hands-on scientific installations, children can have fun challenging their perceptions and experimenting with transparency from every angle, from translucency to opacity, the visible to the invisible... Between reflections and illusions, shimmering minerals and optical illusions, each space becomes a playground for the senses and the imagination.

Learn while having fun, dream while experimenting... The exhibition Transparency encourages young visitors to:

  • understand, through a direct, hands-on approach, the phenomenon of transparency – as well as its opposite, opaqueness, and, between the two, translucency. Clue: it’s all to do with light!
  • explore and experience – through observation and touch – the forms of transparency found in nature, in animals, or made synthetically;
  • discover, through artworks (paintings, sculptures and interactive installations), how artists reproduce transparency effects, play around with it and draw inspiration from it in their creations;
  • develop their curiosity, their imagination and their creativity.
     

Useful information!

  • Exhibition for children aged 2 to 10 and accompanying adults
  • Up to 12 years old for children with disabilities
  • Accompanying adults must present a ticket
  • Children under 2 are admitted only if accompanying a child between 2 and 10 years old
  • On Wednesdays, weekends and during school holidays, pushchairs are allowed in the exhibition only for children under 2 (parking available nearby, baby carriers available upon request) 

Accessibility: relief plan at the entrance of the exhibition, bi-graphic elements, Braille texts, French Sign Language translation.

Accessibility

Accessibility at the Palais (french version)

The highlights of the exhibition

  1. Explore transparency from every angle

    From a luminous ice palace to a mysterious forest, a cave filled with mineral treasures, a sunny sky and a sparkling ocean, transparency is a property of matter found in both nature and objects. 

    Children can marvel at transparency's subtleties, experiment with its optical effects and challenge their perceptions.

  2. From artworks to interactive installations, follow the guide!

    Children explore transparency's optical effects by stepping into immersive artworks by Dan Graham and Soo Sunny Park or engage with the subtle creations of Patrick Neu and Agathe May.

    Young visitors become thoughtful observers and explorers as they discover the exhibition with a unique guide who’s as light as air, as fragile as glass… and transparent! Fun and playful, she escorts kids through a shadowy forest, invites them to listen to the song of the sleeping princess and leads them to the other side of the mirror. But who exactly is this mysterious guide? Tatiana will whisper the answer!

Transparency is the first exhibition of the Palais des enfants, an original space designed for 2-10 year olds, fusing art and science! Children are encouraged to be surprised, experiment, have fun, dream.

Learn more

FAQ

Transparency is both a science and an art exhibition! This is what makes it altogether unique. Youngsters will thus gain an insight into transparency through science experiments and real works of art.

From a scientific perspective, transparency is examined through examples from biology, physics and geology. As is the case for all our exhibitions, our curators have worked together with experts, rigorously checking all of the scientific aspects with them.

Since the exhibition is designed for a broad young audience – between 2 and 10 years old – the scientific notions are explained in ways that are suitable for different educational levels, catering to each age: each child is able to grasp them through a hands-on approach involving touch, observation and play. Our philosophy is to spark their curiosity and imagination, awaken their senses and inspire them to explore and ask questions about the world around them.
 

Through hands-on displays, games and observation, Transparency gives children the opportunity to find out:
•    what exactly is transparency, from a scientific point of view. Clue: it’s all to do with light!
•    the differences with opaqueness, its opposite, and translucency, a similar property;
•    the phenomena that arise when rays of light are deviated by matter: reflections, glittering, iridescence and refraction;
•    the forms of transparency found in nature (including in the sky, animals, minerals, underwater or on land), made synthetically or reproduced by artists in real works of art.

It also shows them, through actual artworks (paintings, sculptures and interactive installations), how artists reproduce transparency effects, play around with it and draw inspiration from it in their creations. You won’t believe your eyes!

No! The Palais des enfants is an original space co-designed by the GrandPalaisRmn and Palais de la Découverte. It puts on temporary exhibitions where art meets science. It combines our respective skills and expertise: the GrandPalaisRmn’s know-how in terms of art exhibitions, and the Palais de la Découverte’s experience in terms of child-centred science exhibitions.

The Palais de la Découverte is currently undergoing renovation. To find our science workshops and demonstrations hosted by our science communicators (in French only), head to our pop-up site, les Étincelles du Palais de la Découverte, in Paris’s 15th arrondissement.

Partners

Buy a ticket