Romain Bechetoille's practice belongs to a tradition of nocturnal urban projection, yet it stands apart through the gentle violence of its intention. The artist wants to interrupt the flow of everyday life, to divert passers-by from their already mapped-out path, to make the gaze rise above the level of smartphones and shop windows. There is something of a light-hearted utopia in this gesture: the belief that the image can still surprise, unsettle and make us dream.

Bechetoille's projections combine black-and-white archives and contemporary creations in a temporal dialogue that turns the city into a living palimpsest. Strippers and crash tests, dancers and urban performers — his images summon a popular, festive energy that transforms crossroads into open-air theatre stages. An ephemeral and generous practice that vanishes with the night but leaves in the memory of passers-by the imprint of a moment of improbable beauty.

Places, walls, the movement of passers-by… catching the eye, the attention… for a few minutes of poetry, of journeys through time, into dreams and lightness… Against a black-and-white backdrop of the past, Romain Bechetoille offers us a moment of energy and reverie… Projecting images across Paris at night comes from this desire to make people look up, to divert a gaze or a passer-by from their already mapped-out path. And sometimes the desire can be violent. In the middle of a crossroads, from strippers to crash tests, the city becomes a dance floor.