Charles Pétillon’s Vae Victis—Latin for Woe to the Vanquished—transforms an abandoned pharmacy into a reflection on obsolescence, transformation, and societal change. The installation floods the empty storefront and windows with a mass of white balloons, seemingly overflowing and escaping from within. This surreal intrusion evokes both a silent eruption and an organic invasion, questioning what remains when a place of care, healing, and community disappears. The contrast between the orderly function of the pharmacy and the uncontrollable expansion of the balloons suggests a tension between structure and chaos, permanence and impermanence. Pétillon invites the viewer to reflect on urban decline, the fragility of institutions, and the layers of history embedded in everyday spaces.