No More Bets

You are greeted by Plus (2025), a red neon light in the shape of a right hand with its index finger pointing skyward—at once a symbol of the limits of our world, of our knowledge, and of the possibility of transcending them. Presented at JKG Vaugirard from April 5 to May 17, the exhibition No More Bets revolves around Rio Buenaventura (2019–2025), the latest project by Stéphanie Solinas (born 1978 in France, lives in Paris): a game table inviting all to a race against time toward immortality. While No More Bets can be visited, the exhibition is above all meant to be played (*).

Rio Buenaventura is the playable form of the book Self Plus. Itinerary for Becoming Oneself (Seuil / Fiction & Cie, 2023, in French), the result of a five-year investigation carried out by Stéphanie Solinas along the West Coast of the United States. Once the land of the gold rush and later the cradle of New Age spirituality, the American West is now driven by a technologism that fuels the invention of the “augmented human” in search of both transcendence and immortality. As Solinas’ work explores “the weaving together of reason and belief that shapes who we are,” Rio Buenaventura takes its name from the mythical river that once fired the imagination of the American frontier. Early maps showed it flowing from the Rockies to the San Francisco Bay.

At the crossroads of a game of goose, Monopoly, tarot, and roulette, Rio Buenaventura is a work activated through its gameplay mechanics and designed for 5 to 7 player-travelers, with sessions led during the exhibition by Stéphanie Solinas. (a guidebook also enables autonomous play). Each session lasts 122 minutes, unless a participant reaches immortality before time runs out. The player-travellers are given a token—a small bronze car topped with an element whose material—pyrite or “fool’s gold,” meteorite from the Sonoran Desert, selenite, red sandstone from Sedona, quartz, or “holy dirt” sand—each of which embodies the mythos of the American West. At the entrance to the gallery, all tokens from the seven available versions of the work are on display.

Rio Buenaventura was built around a real roulette table from the Golden Gate Casino in Las Vegas and took six years to develop—from the artist’s 2019 residency at Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco to a later residency at the gallery in spring 2024. The work constitutes the eleventh of the Twelve West Coast Stations that structure the larger project Becoming Oneself, a long-term field investigation into the American invention of the “augmented” human. Over the past decade, Stéphanie Solinas has explored other research territories: Iceland and the question of invisible worlds, and Italy and the question of miracles.

In parallel with No More Bets at JKG Vaugirard from April 5 to May 17, Stéphanie Solinas also presents Horizon at JKG Odéon over the same dates. That exhibition stems from a note jotted by the author on page 89 of Self Plus. Itinerary for Becoming Oneself, and invites viewers to see the act of seeing itself. No More Bets is an exhibition that is meant to be played; Horizon is an immersive installation.


—Jean-Kenta Gauthier, April 2025



(*) Schedule of public game sessions as of April 5:

Saturday 5 April, 6–9 pm
Wednesday 9 April, 4–7 pm
Saturday 12 April, 4–7 pm
Wednesday 16 April, 4–7 pm
Saturday 19 April, 4–7 pm
Saturday 3 May, 4–7 pm
Wednesday 7 May, 4–7 pm
Saturday 10 May, 4–7 pm
Wednesday 14 May, 4–7 pm

Each Rio Buenaventura game requires 5 to 7 player-travellers. Please be aware the game is played in French. To sign up, please follow this link.