Flops ?!

Flops ?! opens at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris on 14 October 2025. The exhibition places failure at the heart of the narrative and examines it closely through case studies spanning transport, telecommunications, mechanics, as well as games, toys and graphic communication. Why doesn’t an idea take off? Where does it get stuck between intuition, technology and use? Here the perspectives of the engineer, the designer, the salesperson, the advertiser and the user intersect to trace back the chain of decisions and understand how a project derails.

The route also shows that some failures chart unexpected paths. A good idea that is too far ahead of its time, an immature technology, an object repurposed by its users: what seemed blocked can sometimes find a second wind. Without judging or mocking, Flops ?! offers a clear, concrete reading of the “right to make mistakes,” revealing what we learn when we are wrong and how a trajectory can be redirected. An invitation to observe, test, adjust, and to make experimentation a driver of innovation.