The “Museum of Dating” exhibition contextualises the contemporary online dating phenomenon amid an array of older technologies, practices, narratives as well as cultural and media artefacts. While online dating has only recently gained cultural and social acceptance, the idea of using technology to connect single people is far from new. Computer dating systems appeared in the Anglo-American world in the 1960s, drawing on questionnaires and personalised algorithms. In France, the introduction of the Minitel Rose in the 1980s revolutionised how strangers networked through instant messaging to find their soulmate or a virtual fling.

Curator Valentina Peri presents a timeline retracing the history of dating, enriched by the cultural, social and political events and trends that have shaped the dating phenomenon and the idea of celibacy to this day. The exhibition highlights a selection of cultural artefacts and mass culture products, such as board games, films, television programmes, books and various objects, all put into perspective through this chronological reconstruction. Alongside this historical and archival reconstruction, works by contemporary artists Olivier Cheval, Jérôme Saint Clair, Sophie Calle and Lordess Foudre explore each of the key themes in the history of dating. This includes the Minitel Rose, the classified ads published in Le Chasseur Français, and the role played by technology in the (de)construction of identities.

Exhibition in collaboration with artists Jérôme Saint-Clair, Lordless Foudre, Olivier Cheval and Joan Ball.