1The exhibition
For the first time, the Palais de la Porte Dorée is presenting a global exhibition across all its spaces, including the museum and the aquarium : Migrations & Climate.
More than 200 documentary photographs, works of art, some never-before-seen, testimonies, videos, infographics, and installations explore the connections between human migration dynamics, as well as broader movements in the living world, and climate disruption.
Legende
Lucy + Jorge Orta, « Antarctic Village - No Borders », 2007-2021.
Credit
Courtesy Lucy + Jorge Orta. Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris © Photo de Thierry Bal © ADAGP, Paris, 2025.
Climate change is now affecting every region of the world. Everywhere, the links between the environment and migration, whether local or international, raise many questions. This complex relationship has become a major field of research over the past decades.
Migration takes many forms: internal or international, voluntary or forced, temporary or permanent. These movements result from a combination of economic, political, and social factors, among which climate disruption is playing an increasingly important role. On this sensitive topic, often subject to political instrumentalization, the exhibition seeks to provide keys to understanding through reliable data, maps, and personal narratives.
To give a human face to realities that are sometimes painful, the exhibition presents geographic focuses with testimonies from people directly affected. Works of art, mainly contemporary, as well as cinema and comics also reflect how this topic has spread through all levels of our societies.
At once retrospective, contemporary, and forward-looking, the exhibition places the relationship between migration and climate within a long-term perspective in order to challenge certain preconceived ideas and grasp the complexity of the subject, including issues related to the impact of human activity. It also presents responses and solutions, whether they come from the populations concerned or from international organizations.
Finally, because climate change is pushing not only humans but also other species to migrate, the entire Palais de la Porte Dorée is dedicated to this theme: from the spaces of the National Museum of the History of Immigration to the Tropical Aquarium, where the marine world is explored more specifically.
Legende
Inuvialuit Abraham Anghik Ruben, "Shared Migration" (Migration partagée), 2013. © Bern, Museum of Contemporary Circumpolar Art (MCCA)
Originally from a village in the Northwest Territories of Canada, Abraham Anghik Ruben belongs to the Indigenous Mackenzie Inuit people. A witness to the transformation of his culture, from which he was forcibly separated as a child, he has since sought to reconnect with his roots through his artwork. From the mid-2000s, he began blending his work with Scandinavian myths and legends. He finds in them striking similarities with Inuit identity, including shamanism, respect for nature, and, above all, migratory practices in search of more favorable territories.
This 2013 sculpture, titled Shared Migration, depicts the journey of Odin, the principal god of the Scandinavian pantheon. Endowed with multiple powers, Odin is also a shaman and a shape-shifter, meaning he can alter his physical form, notably to travel. In a syncretic vision that could alone summarize the exhibition’s message, the deity shares with humans and animals (whale, seal, wolf, bear, and wolverine) a necessary and common destiny.
Bruno Girveau. Catalogue of the exhibition Migrations & climat. Comment habiter notre monde ?, 2025, p. 30-31.
Exhibition curator
Bruno Girveau is an Honorary Chief Heritage Curator and former Director of the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille (PBA), a position he held from 2013 to 2024. Trained as an architectural historian, he worked for many years with the Historic Monuments service. He has curated numerous exhibitions, consistently seeking to bridge popular culture and scholarly culture. During his tenure, he strongly committed the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille to a systemic approach to sustainability, while also pursuing a policy aimed at broadening audiences by creating the Open Museum and encouraging public participation.
He now works as an independent exhibition curator.
Élisabeth Jolys Shimells is a Chief Heritage Curator specializing in social museology. Her research focuses on the heritage value of personal testimonies and on reinterpreting museum collections in light of evolving historiographical and social perspectives. This work is reflected in the national working group “Heritage of Human Migrations”, which she founded and has led since 2019.
Before taking up her current position as Head of Public Engagement at the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, Élisabeth Jolys Shimells served as Head of the Collections Department at the National Museum of the History of Immigration. She was previously Director of the Alsatian Museum in Strasbourg and later Director of the Alliance Française in Kampala, Uganda.
Gabriel Picot is an Engineer for Cultural Services and Heritage and Head of Cultural and Educational Development at the Aquarium Tropical. He first worked as a scientist in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, then as a teacher of Life and Earth Sciences. He later dedicated himself to promoting scientific culture, notably at the Versailles Education Authority, at the Palais de la Découverte, at Ifremer, and then at the Palais de la Porte Dorée.
Familiar with the marine environment and an experienced sailor, he has taken part in numerous scientific expeditions at sea and in polar regions. A member of the Ocean and Climate Platform, he is committed to raising public awareness of the marine world and helping to protect it.
Olivier Bedoin is an exhibition officer at the National Museum of the History of Immigration. He holds degrees in history, political science, and cultural heritage management from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. He has notably contributed to the preparation of exhibitions at the Carnavalet Museum – History of Paris, as well as to the development of the permanent exhibition at the National Museum of the History of Immigration and the exhibition Olympismv: A History of the World.
Scientific advisory board
Sylvie Dufour, Emeritus Research Director at the CNRS and Ocean Advisor at the Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration (MNHN), is a physiologist and evolutionary biologist. A former student of the ENS Ulm-Sèvres, she holds the Agrégation in Natural Sciences and a State Doctorate from the MNHN and Sorbonne University (SU). She founded and directed the BOREA Laboratory (Biology of Aquatic Organisms and Ecosystems; MNHN, SU, CNRS, IRD, University of Caen Normandy, University of the Antilles) and co-directed the Ocean Institute of the Sorbonne University Alliance.
She received the Grand Prize of the French Academy of Sciences for France–Taiwan scientific cooperation and is a Knight of the Legion of Honour. Her research focuses on the origin and evolution of neurohormonal regulatory systems and their roles in the adaptation of biological cycles, particularly in the context of the effects of global change on marine biodiversity. She is actively involved in sharing scientific knowledge with a wide range of audiences.
François Gemenne, a specialist in the geopolitics of the environment and migration, is a professor at HEC Paris and a qualified researcher of the FNRS at the University of Liège, where he directs the Hugo Observatory. A lead author of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, he also teaches at Sciences Po and the Sorbonne. He co-directs the Defence and Climate Observatory and chairs the Road Decarbonization Alliance. His research focuses primarily on the international governance of climate and migration. In particular, he has worked extensively on population displacement linked to environmental degradation, on climate change adaptation policies, and on asylum and immigration policies.
Highly engaged in public debate, he chairs the Scientific Council of the Fondation pour la Nature et l’Homme (FNH), the Observatory of Sustainable Finance, and the NGO Climate Voices. He is also a radio commentator and directs the “Politiques de la Terre” series at the Presses de Sciences Po. Holding a PhD in political science, he has taught at several universities and published numerous books, including L’écologie n’est pas un consensus, Atlas des migrations environnementales, and Atlas de l’Anthropocène.
Exhibition design / credits
- Scenography: Atelier Maciej Fiszer
- Graphic Design: Atelier Ping Pong
- Lighting Design: Atelier Conception Lumière
- Audiovisual Design: Et Alors
A More Responsible Exhibition
Aligned with a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) approach, the Migrations & Climate exhibition demonstrates the Palais de la Porte Dorée’s concrete commitment to sustainable development, inclusion, and accessibility. Initiatives include eco-designed scenography, more responsible artwork transportation, sustainable climate control for display cases, and accessibility for all visitors.
With the support of
