I did a double take seconds after stepping inside the Patio, the museum’s massive central courtyard.

In a corner, a woman was leaning into the wall, her face shielded under her jacket—she seemed to be peering into a hole.

Something interesting to look at? Nothing surprising here, art installations work in mysterious ways to engage the public.

I took a few steps closer and realized I was looking at the first hyperrealist sculpture from the Attitude series by Daniel Firman.

The Hyper sensible exhibition at the Musée d’art de Nantes is this summer’s must-go-to event. It explores hyperrealism through about forty sculptures that are beyond photorealistic. The most famous one is Duane Hanson’s Flea Market Lady—it’s apparently so realistic that an employee once told the sculpture it was time to go because the museum was closing.

I also found people’s reactions very interesting, so I came back a second time with my camera to capture the moment we look at sculptures that really look like us.

Many spent several minutes in front of Lady in Black by Marc Sijan, a mature athletic woman posing in black underwear—it is rare to see the half-naked body of an older person in museums, in magazines, on TV and elsewhere but in a mirror. “Will this be me, in a few years or a few decades?” everybody seemed to be wondering.

Such realistic sculptures are both fascinating and slightly disturbing. They are so meticulously detailed that you feel observed, and the illusion is so convincing you start wondering what and who is real around you—it doesn’t help that most of us stand still in front of the art for several seconds or minutes!