METAL Claimed

After running Bowie (2015), Electro (2019) or Hip-Hop (2022), which recorded nearly 500,000 visitors, the Philharmonie de Paris is now presenting the first major international exhibition on metal culture in France.

Iconic objects and works representing metal history, embodying bands as well as the public will be presented in the exhibition. It will thus show instruments, record covers, costumes, sets, goodies and works of art that formed the history of the genre, to recount the saga of metal around the world.

The exhibition will be dedicated to connections between the genre and popular culture. The exhibition will also link metal visual universe with films, video games or comic strips being at the origin of a particular iconography. 

A focus on the strong political commitment of metal (environmentalism, protection of cultural minorities, etc.) is developed within a specific section of the exhibition. Given the community’s major role in the very existence of metal as a culture, a large part of the exhibition will additionally give room to metalheads’ collections. It will consider access to these extreme music as an initiation rite. A particular attention will be paid to the musical dimension of the show, to immerse visitors gradually in all dimensions of the genre.

The scenography and the structure of the exhibition trail will tell visitors a story of metal, through images and objects, as a journey within this musical scene and its culture.