“Pavillon Simone Weil” – a Reference:

The “Pavillon Simone Weil” has become a reference among all the works I have done. A reference, way beyond ‘success’ or ‘failure’. Here, one week after the last day of this experience “Pavillon Simone Weil”, I want to share my artist’s testimony of this experience. As an artist, I can and want to testify too, amid the chorus of opinions and views on this experience. I will try to be as concrete as possible by confronting HOPES with RESULTS, revisiting my text “Pavillon Simone Weil – what I hope: ” that I had published a week before the first day of the “Pavillon Simone Weil” (March 31, 2026), and I will compare the “Pavillon Simone Weil” goals that I had announced on the flyer before starting the work.

HOPE: I hope that the thinking and the radical and singular action of Simone Weil – who is concretely a ‘caretaker’ for us today – will be the focus of all the presences and productions of the “Pavillon Simone Weil.” I also hope that, thanks to the possible encounters we make, we can share our passion, our love, our knowledge and also our understanding of Simone Weil’s teaching, and that the work of art “Pavillon Simone Weil” will reach up to her work and life exigencies.

RESULT: This was not sufficiently the case. Too often the ‘Simone Weil substance’ was missing. Despite some magnificent but too chancy ‘Simone Weil breakthroughs’, there weren’t enough interventions and productions centered on Simone Weil and I should have done and demanded more ‘Simone Weil content’. I think we honored and enriched – through discussions and actions – the memory of Simone Weil, but without enough concentration. On a personal level, I could – thanks to the “Pavillon Simone Weil” experience – still deepen and broaden my knowledge of Simone Weil. My passion for her thinking has been nourished, it has grown and I will continue working on her concepts that are so stimulating. And thanks to my daily presence, I could especially witness, experience, reflect, and live out her concepts of ‘Rights vs. Obligations’, ‘Decreation’, ‘Attention’, ‘Well pure vs. Good and Evil’, ‘Position vs. Thought’, ‘Karma’, ‘Need for Roots’ and ‘Emptiness/Grace’. The fact that we were able to distribute books by Simone Weil and that the Simone Weil shelves in Geneva’s bookstores expanded during the time of the “Pavillon Simone Weil” show how our work helped make her philosophy and her life known.

HOPE:  I hope that the “Pavillon Simone Weil” will bring us together – we who are present on site all the time – into some kind of community, a precarious community, such as all sincere communities. They are precarious because aware of their fragility, and therefore open to mystery, and ready for an adventure.

RESULT: We did achieve this, at least after the “Pavillon Simone Weil’s” first thirty days. Firstly, I think of the participants who were present every day, who gave their time, their rest, their sleep or their production, but I also think of the cooperants who got involved, helped each other, and met each other. I won’t forget, when – at the peak of a conflictual situation, linked to too much violence, isolated and overwhelmed by external criticism and internal accusations – I, the artist, wanted to stop the project after thirty days, but the cooperators, or at least the majority of them, despite their reproaches towards me, saved the “Pavillon Simone Weil” project by their attachment to this experiment that had just begun. From then on, after this crucial shift, after the crisis was over, we were linked as a precarious community, bound by the pledge to continue the “Pavillon Simone Weil” project, no matter what. This community remained precarious and fragile, but was also adventurous, lively, and energizing, and I think we were able to meet people and enjoy sharing our skills.

HOPE: I hope that the new ‘Evolutive Form’ of the “Pavillon Simone Weil”, built without distinction between ‘setup’ and ‘exhibition’ phases, will be an enrichment evolving moment after moment, hour after hour, and that its being ‘in process’ will be understood and used by cooperators and participants, who will say “Everything has still to be built!” instead of “Nothing is ready!” I hope this new experience will be made as a work of ‘classical sculpture’ transformed by adding and removing material, while getting more precise and closer to its ‘final shape’ – which we know will, anyway, never be finished. Thus, patiently, layer after layer, the “Pavillon Simone Weil” gets richer, densifies and transforms itself.

RESULT: It really was the case, and I am very pleased by the magnitude of this novelty. The two setup/dismantling phases were indeed understood as integral parts of this ‘ongoing project’ in perpetual construction/deconstruction, infinite movement, and permanent transformation. They could unfold organically, in collective intelligence, without accidents, with productions until the last day, including the extraordinary four-days phase of the “Simone Weil Wake”.

HOPE: I hope that the “Pavillon Simone Weil” can become a true ‘Public Space’, and that participants and cooperators will appropriate this work of art as a space belonging to everyone, or that doesn’t belong to anyone entirely – a space where one feels ‘being part of the public’, a space for production, sharing, and exchange – far from privatized spaces.

RESULT: This was partially the case. The “Pavillon Simone Weil” has transformed the Pavillon Sicli into a public space, in its affirmative and universal dimension, but also in its problematic dimension, which means including violence, insults, provocations, uncertainties, discomforts, disorders and drifts of public space. The shaky balance between the artistic will to create ‘public space’ and the inconveniences of public space ‘laws’ with its challenges and dangers have created, especially at the beginning, misunderstanding, fear and even rejection. The dimension and complexity of the notion of ‘Public Space’ – which, for me as an artist, is a positive notion in itself – were not shared nor experienced positively by everyone. I also think that creating an event with the form ‘Assembly’ was only partially achieved. We did create an ‘event’, for sure, but it did not really form an Assembly, because when it occurred, it remained too fragmented and divided. To be noted, the “Pavillon Simone Weil” has strongly resisted, even ‘naturally,’ all attempts of ‘commercialization’, ‘politicization’ or ‘privatization’.

HOPE: I hope that the “Pavillon Simone Weil” will be resolutely inclusive, that everyone will be accepted as is, that no one is excluded and that no one excludes themselves. That – thanks to its ‘Presence and Production’ guidelines, thanks to the welcome offered, thanks to the productions that will take place and to the people who will be present – a space for attention will be created: the attention we pay to others and the attention we give to what happens around us.

RESULT: This is one of the successes of the “Pavillon Simone Weil”. The fact that we could offer a canteen with a free hot meal at noon, and a bar with free drinks all day long, has, I believe, largely contributed to the inflow of a non-exclusive audience. (Our cooks sometimes prepared up to 190 meals per day). This is the first time that I could propose free meals and drinks in a work of mine, and this truly made the difference. I am very grateful to the two foundations (Pavillon Sicli Foundation and Fase) who secured the financing and made it possible. This created a social mixing and a radical inclusiveness, with a real diversity of presences and productions at the “Pavillon Simone Weil” throughout the 78 days. Obviously, a free meal and drinks greatly contributed to its attractiveness among the non-exclusive audience which I absolutely wanted to include. This also resonated with a human being’s essential obligations towards another, in accord with Simone Weil’s thinking. The fact that a large majority of men attended the “Pavillon Simone Weil” – as I could notice – is the proof of a social reality. And this reality, often overlooked or hidden, was revealed, including its share of violence.

HOPE: I hope that the ‘Non-Programming’ model will be understood and shared with the participants and cooperators, and that it can prove – during these 78 days – its potential of including the unplanned, and assert its future as a form integrating a ‘non-exclusive audience’. Let the ‘Non-Programming’ honor those who have time, those who give time, those who share their time – as one of the most precious gifts today!

RESULT: I think that the Non-Programming was truly understood, it took shape and its concept was applied. What mattered at the “Pavillon Simone Weil” was to honor people and favor chance – or in Simone Weil’s words: the gushing of light – thanks to those unexpected moments of presence. While remaining modest, there were such moments when chance occurred, and the Non-Programming fully made sense. The fact that cooperants communicated their production on their own, through their networks and partners, contributed effectively to the emergence of a new form of event. Apart from a few exceptions, Non-Programming at the “Pavillon Simone Weil” artwork has helped prevent frustrations by habits of ‘cultural consumption’ or ‘cultural programming expectancy’.

HOPE: I hope that we can count on Grace – despite all the mistakes and shortcomings that this work will certainly have – in helping make the “Pavillon Simone Weil” an unforgettable experience whose remembrances and created memories constitute a Monument for eternity – a Monument to Simone Weil – beyond all material aspect, objectified commodity, and cultural habits.

RESULT: This has certainly been achieved. I will never forget such a demanding, beautiful and difficult experience. Obviously the “Pavillon Simone Weil” will remain unique and unforgettable, for me, but also for some of the cooperants and participants who took part. There were many mistakes and shortcomings, especially on my part. I often wasn’t attentive enough, lacking the attention so important for Simone Weil: I intervened too late in preventing a critical situation or to avoid a confrontation. I lacked anticipation and initiative. There were generally too many daily failures, cowardice, shortcomings, betrayals, personal failures, ‘undiscipline’ or ‘disrespect’ from all sides, but these were often forgivable, as a result of presence and production, and so many human beings involved together. In this case, the ‘Presence and Production’ guideline – my presence and my production – fully made sense at the “Pavillon Simone Weil”.

HOPE: I hope that this work of art will give a new and credible form to discussion, to the problematics and questions which one must ask a Monument today: For whom is a Monument made? How can one make a Monument? How long should the Monument last? With whom make a Monument? Where place a Monument?

RESULT: The “Pavillon Simone Weil” contributed to the discussion ‘how should a monument be made today.’ I constantly insisted on my mission as an artist, of reinventing the notion of monument and tirelessly affirmed my proposal following the four guidelines: 1. A monument erected out of love, 2. a precarious monument – therefore limited in time as an object and as material – but unlimited as a collective memory, 3. a monument made by local or city residents, and 4. a monument that produces something: encounters, dialogue, works, knowledge, reflections, conflicts, memories. I must remain modest, since there are always many misunderstandings and superficialities towards an artwork, yet I am convinced that some – visitors, participants or collaborators – have understood these new dimensions of a precarious monument today, and I believe that day after day, we have been able to establish this new form of monument.

I was happy to make this complex, very difficult but also magical experience of the “Pavillon Simone Weil”. I was happy at every moment, even during those most complicated and uncertain. Because, I was happy that I could do my work as an artist, and – far from contentment or frustration, far from satisfaction or non-functioning – I was happy I could work and fulfill my mission as an artist.

Thomas Hirschhorn, Paris, June 2026

“Pavillon Simone Weil” at Pavillon Sicli Geneva, 31st March – 16th June 2026

“POP-UP-MARILYN”, part of the celebration : “5 AÑOS MUSEO HELGA DE ALVEAR, CÁCERES = ¡SI PUEDES HACERLO AQUÍ PUEDES HACERLO EN CUALQUIER LUGAR!” – Fifth anniversary of the Museo Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, Spain.

Madrid, Atocha Station – 24.02.2026 

Lisbon, Oriente Station – 26.02.2026

Cáceres, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Helga de Alvear – 27.02 – 01.03.2026

On view:  “MY ATLAS # OUR ATLAS”, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Helga de Alvear, Cáceres (Spain),

14/11/2025 – 10/05/2026 – Click here for more information

“Fake it, Fake it – till you Fake it.”, 2024

“My Atlas”, 2025

“Gravity, Mass and Democracy”, 2025

“Power Tools”, 2007 and “Power Tools”-Workshop, 2025

On view:  ‘Copyists’ / Centre Pompidou Metz (France) / 14.06.2025 – 02.02.2026​ / Presenting: «HAUSALTAR», 2025

Click here for more information