Coinciding with the 2019 edition of FIAC in Paris this week, The House of Guerlain is presenting “Gaïa, what are you becoming?”, a group exhibition featuring work by more than 20 international artists like Allora & Calzadilla, Andy Goldsworthly, Ibrahim Mahama and Vik Muniz, and Eva Jospin. The show is a call to action, urging viewers to take responsibility and confront the current state of our planet in order to ensure a fruitful home for future generations, curated by Caroline Messensee.
The works on view shed light on the precarious state of our planet and our need to reevaluate the ways we interact with our home through a range of media including paintings, videos, photography, and installation art. A selection of around 30 pieces fills the three floors of The House of Guerlain, like Muniz’s whimsical Bee, depicting the pollinating insect perched on a flowering bush or Jospin’s haunting image of a shadowed forest, entitled Forêt.
Vik Muniz
Bee
2016
Photography
180 X 180 cm
© Vik Muniz
Courtesy Vik Muniz.
“Much more than just a fleeting fad, the need to care for the environment and protect the planet is something that we’re finally starting to grasp,” said Messensee. “In the field of visual arts, interactions between the artist and the natural world are the very basis of the practice of representation. These interactions have also acted as markers, signaling from the very earliest times humanity’s imprint upon the world.”
A luxury Parisian beauty brand, The House of Guerlain has been working in partnership with FIAC since 2006. Presented at the brand’s historic boutique on Champs-Élysées, this year’s exhibition will remain on view through November 8.
Douglas White
Black Sun
2010
Fragmented yew roots, steel, panel fibers
209x 220 x 84cm
© Douglas White
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Odile Ouizeman.
