Diego Marcon

With Prom, his first solo exhibition in Paris, Diego Marcon transforms Lafayette Anticipations into a hybrid cinema.

He blends the architectural codes of late Renaissance Italian theatre – a place of social performance where people come as much to see as to be seen – with the minimalism, comfort and accessibility of modern cinemas, which represent an evolution in our relationship with images and entertainment.

The exhibition presents four films made using a combination of animation techniques, props and animated figurines: The Parents' Room (2021), Dolle (2023), La Gola (2024) and Krapfen (2025). Each explores the mechanisms of emotion production by drawing on different film genres such as musicals, burlesque, melodrama and horror films. All are rooted in the intimacy of the home, questioning the norms and taboos that govern human relationships. The characters, often ambivalent, evolve in grotesque, sometimes violent situations that provoke both discomfort and empathy. However, the artist imposes neither morality nor conclusion, avoiding any form of resolution.

For the first time, Diego Marcon unveils some of the objects created and used in the making of his films. Exhibited behind the scenes, animatronics, prosthetics, furniture, and sets shatter the illusion of the moving image and question our perception of truth and the trust we place in images.

Diego Marcon's work evokes feelings of empathy and vulnerability, without moralizing or offering a fixed conclusion. The exhibition, presented at Lafayette Anticipations, brings together his films set in domestic and private spaces. These intimate, closed-off worlds explore relationships between individuals and probe the power dynamics that shape them.

The title of the exhibition, Prom, is a nod to the American ritual of the high school prom, a popular celebration that marks the transition to adulthood.

His work draws on different cinematic vocabularies, notably from musicals, melodramas, horror films, and slapstick comedies.