100 collectors Salon at the macLYON: A First Evening in the City

For its first event in Lyon, 100 collectors brought together a room of museum professionals, artists, and collectors at the macLYON for an evening of conversation, discovery, and shared enthusiasm for digital art.

The 100 collectors Salon at the MAC Lyon drew between twenty and thirty guests for what turned out to be one of those rare evenings where the conversation never really stops. The room was deliberately mixed — long-standing MAC patrons and collectors of varying generations sat alongside Lyon-based entrepreneurs and artists including Louis-Paul Caron and Kalen Iwamoto — which gave the night its particular energy.

The evening opened with an introduction to 100 collectors, before Edouard and Benoît Challand took the floor to share their experience of the community. Their testimonials were generous and genuine, setting a tone of openness that carried through the rest of the programme.

The heart of the evening was a three-way conversation around digital art — using Art Basel and the platform Zero10 as a jumping-off point. Each voice brought a distinct perspective: Marlène Corbun as curator and advisor in digital art, Edouard as a collector who has lived the process of acquiring works in this space, and Benoit as an artist navigating the relationship between creation, ownership, and audience. Together, they mapped the landscape of digital collecting with clarity and nuance.

The questions that followed were among the most engaged of the night. Collectors — particularly those newer to the digital space — pressed on the practical realities: the technical barriers to acquiring digital works, questions of conservation and longevity, and perhaps most meaningfully, how the relationship between artist and collector shifts when the work exists in a digital form. These are the conversations 100 collectors exists to facilitate, and they unfolded naturally.

Kalen Iwamoto then gave a brief presentation on BarcodeX, the ongoing exhibition at the MAC Bar, offering guests a direct bridge between the discussion and a live artistic project in the very building they were standing in.

The evening closed — as the best ones do — not with a formal ending but with a drift toward the MAC Bar, where the conversations continued over drinks. The feedback was unanimously warm, and the atmosphere confirmed what the 100 collectors format is built for: bringing the right people into the same room and letting the subject do the rest.

Some words from 100c Team:

This first Lyon edition was made possible entirely through the initiative of Marlène Corbun, whose contribution as a local organiser and contributor shaped every detail of the evening, a heartfelt thank you to her, Edouard, Benoît Challand, Wen New Atelier and the team of macLYON.

Stay close to the 100 collectors programme for upcoming Salons and community events.