The gaze is a missing object. The gaze is a movement of the soul, an ontological movement—a gaze towards the object, towards the work of art, towards the Other too. It's not a Bergsonian movement of time, it's a movement in space, without moving, and this lends itself very much to architecture. In particular, we were talking about time and how, in the end, looking is not just an ocular action, but also a bodily action: the body looks into a museum. Kader Attia experienced his artistic epiphany at the Louvre. Alongside Elizabeth Peyton, he has been offered the status of “Hôte du Louvre” by the museum, acting as a fellow-traveller to the museum and holding a studio at the Pavillon de Flore. Amongst the many activities he has developed, including the Artist’s Lessons program, with a final sequence on September 25th, he conceived as seminar entitled What is Missing in the Object. This seminar was held at the museum’s research center, the Centre Dominique Vivant Denon, and brought together members of the curatorial team as well as leading figures from the contemporary world. The questions raised stemmed from both his work and the thinking inherent to the Louvre: how does the lack of an object, the lack in an object, the lack around an object, enable us to extend and clarify our perception of art, of the museum, and of our humanity?