Kourtney Roy: Her disturbing Universe Arrives in Paris

Between Seaside Fantasy and Contemporary Discomfort: Kourtney Roy

From February 20 to September 20, 2026, Kourtney Roy presents an immersive exhibition in Paris at the Cité de l’économie. Where mass tourism becomes a stage set, a performance space, and a mirror reflecting our contemporary desires. Through sun-drenched, hyper-saturated images filled with artificial glamour and ambiguous characters, the Canadian artist explores the economic, social, and psychological realities hidden behind the fantasy of travel.

In Roy’s world, the perfect vacation always feels slightly unreal.

Turquoise swimming pools, fluorescent cocktails, deserted motels, ferries suspended in time, yachts rented for only a few hours, everything appears familiar and seductive at first glance, yet deeply unsettling underneath. Roy revisits the idealized imagery of global tourism in order to expose its contradictions. Behind the dreamlike visuals lies an industry built on consumption, standardization, and the endless manufacturing of desire.

Tourism as Contemporary Theatre

With series such as The Tourist, Roy dismantles the fantasy of the modern seaside escape. Carefully staged poses, exposed bodies, and artificial settings reveal the logic of “all-inclusive” tourism, the uniformity of destinations, and the performative culture shaped by social media.

Her photographs function almost like visual traps; initially seductive, they slowly become uncomfortable. The dream of travel transforms into a disguised critique where fascination and excess coexist in constant tension.

In Roy’s work, tourism is never innocent.

Ghostly Landscapes and Suspended Spaces

In Sorry, No Vacancy, photographed in South Texas, travel takes on a darker and more mysterious dimension. Desert landscapes, endless roads, and abandoned motels create the atmosphere of a ghostly America, somewhere between nostalgia and apocalypse. The promise of adventure gives way to isolation and emptiness.

With Entre deux mondes, Roy shifts her attention toward the in-between spaces of travel itself. The ferry becomes a suspended world, an intermediate zone between departure and destination, filled with quiet melancholy. Here, tourism is no longer only about spectacle and consumption, but also about invisible labor.

Behind idealized holidays lies a fragile service economy sustained by workers whose labor often remains unseen, despite tourism representing nearly 10% of global GDP and one in ten jobs worldwide.

Between American Cinema and Social Critique

Kourtney Roy’s approach is neither documentary nor overtly activist. Instead, she embraces immersion, fiction, and theatrical staging. Her worlds are meticulously constructed through actors, costumes, rented locations, and exaggerated props. Fake nails, wigs, oiled bodybuilders, inflatable pools, and sparkling beers become symbols of a consumerist fantasy pushed to its limits.

Inspired by American cinema, Roy works primarily with natural light and without digital retouching. In her images, reality already appears artificial before the photograph is even taken.

This constant tension between visual beauty and social commentary is what gives the exhibition its hypnotic power.

Why You Should See This Exhibition

More than an exhibition about travel, this Paris presentation offers a striking reflection on our relationship with images, desire, and modern consumption. In an era dominated by vacation selfies, Instagrammable destinations, and curated fantasies of escape, Kourtney Roy’s work feels particularly relevant.

Her photographs attract us just as much as they unsettle us.

And that is precisely where their power lies.

---