La fabrique du temps: the exhibition between history and art unveiled at the Musée de la Poste

Alice in Wonderland 's white rabbit worried about always being late, while writer Carl Honoré praises slowness. Time is a difficult concept to grasp: it passes both too quickly and too slowly, we can't wait for it to pass, then we chase after it... It has fascinated and questioned every generation, from philosophers to artists.

The Musée de la Poste takes a closer look at time, and above all its social and cultural construction, in a brand-new exhibition presented from March 26 to November 3, 2025. Through a variety of historical objects and time markers, the institution explores our relationship with time, its representations, and the role of communications and industrialization in our modern, ultra-fast lives.

The exhibition La fabrique du Temps features over a hundredobjects: clocks, watches, calendars, almanacs, historical photographs... The exhibition also features some fiftyworks of art (sculptures, videos, installations...), and objects from the history of the French Post Office (date stamps, postmarks, trunk watches...).

The exhibition at the Musée de la Poste questions our relationship with time, and the way it has been codified and generalized for administrative purposes. Each era has a different relationship with time, and these nuances can be seen in everyday uses and objects. The Musée de la Poste can illustrate all these periods through its collections, which range from 19th-century synchronized clocks to parcel-delivering drones, telegraphs and connected objects.

Faced with these historical objects, the Musée de la Poste exhibits works ofcontemporary art, reminding us that the human being remains at the heart of this time, which seems increasingly to be slipping away from us. Original creations, poetic or ironic, show that the question of time is at the heart of our concerns.

These include a clock frozen in ice; a watch whose hand takes a thousand years to turn the dial, giving us the impression that time stands still; and a work that updates itself every time someone tweets "I haven't got time"...

The Musée de la Poste invites us to take time for contemplation and reflection, with the exhibition La fabrique du Temps, which takes us on a journey like no other.

This test was conducted as part of a professional invitation. If your experience differs from ours, please mention it in the comments.