1. Home
2. Culture
3. “Superfacial”: The Intimate and the World Through Audrey Tautou’s Lens

At Quai de la Photo in Paris, Audrey Tautou’s Superfacial exhibition brings together around fifty photographs that retrace a star’s journey—raw and unfiltered. This immersive exhibition is born of a gaze turned inward, outward, and onto the world.

In this exhibition, Audrey Tautou reveals images of herself and of others, both loved ones and total strangers. The show blends theatrical self-portraits, diary-style snapshots, and letters from fans.

Through this, she probes our relationship with fame. What does a famous face really mean? Does it stay the same over time? Does it look different to strangers than it does to those closest to us?
And what about the anonymous faces of strangers, free from the burden of being watched?
The ones we pass without noticing, seeing only their backs... They’re alone. But to someone, they are everything. They are known, deeply, by the people who love them.
“Those who know you will recognize you,” writes Audrey Tautou.

This is an introspective exhibition, but also one deeply addressed to the viewer. Visitors are welcomed by a printed declaration from the actress:
“Ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves. I’m a star. A real one. Yes, yes.”
But step by step, photo by photo, Audrey Tautou draws us into a deeper reflection on fame, identity, solitude, self-image, and how we perceive others.

The experience unfolds like an open letter, a response, in a way, to the many letters from fans displayed on the walls. Some are kind. Others sting. All are laid bare, black on white.
Audrey Tautou offers a long, vulnerable message to those who walk through this space. Her photos are paired with her words, inviting as many questions as they offer answers.

And what is a photograph, after all, if not, as Brigitte Bardot once said, “a moment of life, captured for eternity, that will never stop looking back at you”?

This exhibition is far from Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain. And yet, in some ways, it tells the same stories, of life’s everyday moments, small yet deeply meaningful.
Audrey Tautou even shares her to-do list with us, and it’s strikingly similar to our own.

Far from the star persona, the question lingers: Who are we, really, in the shadows? Who are we when the lights go off?
“I don’t wish to turn off the spotlight anymore. I’m no longer afraid of being seen.”
Audrey Tautou embraces softness. She guides us gently, “so soft, so soft, so soft” into her world, and invites us to meet our own.

This exhibition reaches beyond gallery walls. It digs deep into the soul, into that innate well of solitude we all carry, even in the middle of a jaded crowd.
In the end, we remain alone.
But we are still the most important person in the world to those who truly know us.

Running until September 10, 2025. Free entry.