Let yourself be carried away by Foules, the temporary exhibition from the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie (Paris), coming to La Cité Miroir in mid-November 2026. Both observation and action are at the heart of the experience, allowing visitors to explore the many phenomena of crowds through an ingenious scenography. Among others, we are swept along with excitement or jostled in every direction. From these interactions, collective behaviors emerge—phenomena that Foules seeks to examine and unravel.
How do researchers study dense crowds at large gatherings? What hidden rules do we follow unknowingly when moving among others? How do major opinion movements grow and spread on social media? Often criticized, crowds have long been imagined as strange, even unsettling creatures. Drawing on contemporary interdisciplinary research, Foules aims to challenge and deconstruct the negative image that has been associated with them for too long.

Mehdi Moussaïd is the scientific curator of Foules. This French researcher and video maker works at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany, where he studies collective human behavior. He also runs his own YouTube channel, Fouloscopie.