L'INVITATION AU VOYAGE

Flavie Audi, Marion Benoit, Lise Bouissière, Enrico David, Maurice Denis, Robert Elfgen, Max Ernst, Andreas Feininger, Brunhilde Bordeaux-Groult, Agnes Scherer, Stephanie Stein, Kiki Smith, Sebastian Stöhrer, Rosemarie Trockel

On a cool June evening at Le Brandevin in Paris, over eggs mayonnaise, my friend Brunhilde turned to me with characteristic enthusiasm and said, ‘You must stay at my home.’ She handed me the keys with a smile and simple instructions: ‘Live here for a few days and come up with an exhibition.’

« L’INVITATION AU VOYAGE » is my response, born from those days in her duplex flat, a literal stone’s throw from the Fondation Le Corbusier in the 16th arrondissement. I was transported to another world — mystical and earthy — of artists with the spirit of poets. The scent of opoponax, Robert’s etched-glass panels, lush decorative wall panelling, a Napoleon-tent-painted bedroom, and a giant neo-Art Deco fireplace animated the space.

Lounging on Brunhilde’s Provençal textiles in the four-poster bed they built, I realised their home is a total work of art. Conceived with their friend, designer Alix Thomsen, it is a space that carries the whispers of friendship and collaboration. I have now been welcomed into this circle, and I extend the invitation to new and old friends.

Inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s poem L’Invitation au Voyage, the exhibition unfolds like a dream. Room by room — from living areas and bedrooms to bathrooms and the garden — you are led through a series of settings where art, nature, and reverie coalesce. Here, our senses are heightened and everything feels interconnected, imbued with a Baudelairian sense of calm, luxury, and sensuous delight (calme, luxe et volupté).