in the footsteps of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry at the François-Mitterrand media library

Léon Dubois’ exhibition invites the general public to follow the investigation carried out by the photographer and visual artist in search of the Little Prince, until January 25, 2025 at the François-Mitterrand media library.

At the inauguration of his installation at the François-Mitterrand media library, this Tuesday, October 15, 2024, the young man, his 1950 Rolleiflex camera on his shoulder, recalls the context in which his investigation was born. “Since 2020, I have been searching for the traces left by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in the cities he passed through, from Alexandria to Poitiers, from Strasbourg to New York”explains the photographer and visual artist, keen on history and passionate about the relationship between literature and photographic interpretation, “the way it lives in the collective imagination”. The gaze of Léon Dubois, who lives between Neuville-de-Poitou and Alexandria – where he first settled to follow the itinerary of a trip to the Mediterranean by Jean Cocteau – was focused on The Little Princethe most translated tale in the world, after finding a photograph of its author in the Egyptian city.

27 photos for 27 chapters

Then the artist finds a photograph from the family archives which shows his great-grandfather, Léon Baron, originally from Deux-Sèvres, in an aviator outfit, in resonance with the image of the pilot writer. In the exhibition room of the François-Mitterrand media library, 27 black and white silver prints by Léon Dubois are presented. “They echo the 27 chapters of the philosophical tale”specifies the artist who accompanies them with archives, research notes, articles bearing the image of the Little Prince. A milestone exhibition as an invitation to question the contemporaneity of the work through a travel diary, by highlighting the roots of a memory, “by probing the state of the work today”. The exhibition thus commemorates the 80th anniversary of the death of its author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. A new appointment will be made in 2026 for the restitution of all the work of Léon Dubois “to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the publication of Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry published by Gallimard ».

Exhibition “In search of the Little Prince”, in the footsteps of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, François-Mitterrand media library, 4, rue de l’Université, until January 25, 2025. Free entry. Visit for the general public by Léon Dubois, Wednesday November 6 at 5 p.m. Information: 05.49.52.31.51.