As Founder and Director of MEGA Art Fair in Milan, art advisor and lecturer Mattia Pozzoni brings together the worlds of scholarship, curation, and market expertise with an instinctive sense of harmony. Over the past fifteen years, he has guided major collectors and cultural partners across Europe, cultivating a practice defined by intellectual depth and understated elegance. His work spans modern masters to today’s most compelling contemporary voices, with collaborations that include American Express Centurion, Rocco Forte Hotels, and Fulham Football Club.
Whitewall spoke with Pozzoni about his Paris — a city where conversation fuels creativity, where discovery happens effortlessly, and where the beauty of art and everyday life are, as he describes, “never separate worlds.”
Courtesy of Hôtel Amour, photo by Pion Photographie.
WHITEWALL: Where do you find inspiration?
MATTIA POZZONI: In Paris, you don’t really have to look for inspiration — it tends to find you. A studio visit turns into an exhibition idea; a dinner conversation turns into a project. The city has that rare ability to make art feel like part of everyday life rather than a separate world.
“In Paris, you don’t really have to look for inspiration — it tends to find you,”
Mattia Pozzoni
WW: Favorite place to see art?
MP: The Fondation Louis Vuitton — a classically complicated Frank Gehry architecture that has recently hosted some of the most remarkable exhibitions in Paris. The recent Rothko show was, without doubt, one of the best exhibitions I’ve seen in quite some time.
At the same time, I find equal excitement in smaller galleries such as Brémond Capela, Romero Paprocki, or Sans Titre, where discovery feels more personal and dialogue with artists more direct.
WW: Best neighborhood vibe?
MP: The Haut Marais still has that unbeatable mix — institutions, new galleries, cafés, and chance encounters. Especially around Rue de Bretagne, where daily life and the art world overlap effortlessly. You can go from a gallery visit to a coffee at Boot Café or lunch at Le Marché des Enfants Rouges — it’s a neighborhood that never feels staged, just genuinely alive.
“The Haut Marais still has that unbeatable mix,”
Mattia Pozzoni
WW: Best-kept secret?
MP: The courtyard of the Hôtel de Sully, just behind Place des Vosges — a hidden passage that feels like a portal between centuries. I often cut through it after a meeting nearby; it’s calm, cinematic, and oddly grounding in the middle of the Marais chaos.
WW: Best meal?
MP: Lunch at Clamato — it’s always vibrant, with some of the best seafood in Paris and a joyful, unpretentious atmosphere (and its no-reservation policy makes up for its impossible-to-book sister restaurant, Septime). For dinner, Le Servan is my go-to: precise yet full of character, with a cuisine that feels both rooted and inventive.
WW: For your ideal 24 hours in Paris, where would we find you morning, noon, and evening?
MP: If I’m feeling slightly decadent, breakfast at Gramme — great coffee (not easy to find in Paris), even better food. Late morning wandering through the Palais Royal arcades, with a stop at Astier de Villatte or Maison Kitsuné — two very different expressions of Parisian style, both irresistible in their own way.
Lunch anywhere I can find a good croque monsieur and a glass of Pinot Noir — next on my list is Tram, in the 11th. Afternoon for gallery visits in the Marais, looking for spaces for MEGA Art Fair or a quick stop at one of the smaller galleries I love.
Aperitivo at Hôtel Amour, dinner in Saint-Germain, and then perhaps a late drink at Silencio — where conversations about art always seem to last longer than planned.
Mattia Pozzoni’s Best of Paris:
1. Brémond Capela
Courtesy of Brémond Capela.
Bremond Capela’s program is conceived as a living narrative, where each exhibition becomes a chapter that reflects and questions the transformations of our time. The gallery brings together artists whose work addresses themes such as identity, migration, feminism, and technology, alongside broader cultural, political, and aesthetic concerns. This vision also engages with more canonical questions of art history, from the renewed role of painting to the ways traditional forms can be reactivated today. The program unfolds as a sensitive and evolving chronicle of contemporary life. Artists, whether emerging or established, act as witnesses and storytellers, offering new anthropological perspectives that enrich an ever-expanding narrative of the present. Bremond Capela was founded from the combined experience of Mathieu Capela, co-founder of cadet capela, and Martin Bremond’s years within major international galleries. – Bremond Capela
2. Romero Paprocki
2025, PAOLA SIRI RENARD, “PARADE,” ROMERO PAPROCKI, photo Salim Santa Lucia; Courtesy of Romero Paprocki.
Romero Paprocki was founded in 2020 by Guido Romero Pierini and Tristan Paprocki who first collaborate by choosing spaces for their museum-like scale in order to offer a first visibility to emerging artists and match with the quality of the works that are being displayed in them. After the opening of the first gallery venue in Le Marais in 2022, they focused on mid-career artists with a steady desire to formulate a discourse both scenographic and legible at the artists’ service. Romero Paprocki continues its mission to host compelling exhibitions for its diverse cast of rising artists, while fostering creativity and keep inspiring the Parisian community, and beyond, thanks to international art fairs. – Romero Paprocki
3. Hôtel de Sully
Courtesy of Hôtel de Sully.
With its orangery, courtyard and garden, the Hôtel de Sully is a must in the Marais district, connecting Rue Saint-Antoine to Place des Vosges, formerly Place Royale. The garden of the Hôtel de Sully contrasts with the courtyard by its calm which allows rest in the shade of the holm oak. It was restored at the beginning of 2023: boxwood were replaced by a new variety resistant to parasitic fungi, and shrubs by perennial and seasonal plants. Observe the monuments around you! The rear facade of the house repeats the layout of the facade on the courtyard. The two allegories, embodied by women, represent Spring and its flowers, and Summer bearing sheaves of wheat. At the bottom, the orangery consists of a central body resting on five arcades, framed by two pavilions with pointed roofs decorated with ridge earsIn lead. The center arcade is surmounted by a sundial engraved in the stone. Want to continue your walk? Push the door of the pavilion on the right that gives access to the Place des Vosges! – Hôtel de Sully
4. Hôtel Amour
Courtesy of Hôtel Amour, photo by Pion Photographie.
Hôtels Amour – hôtels & restaurants – places where art and fashion meet. In the 9th arrondissement of Paris, between Pigalle and Montmartre, you’ll find Hôtel Amour, and near the Gare du Nord, in the 10th arrondissement, you’ll find Hôtel Grand Amour, on rue de la Fidélité…On the French Riviera, avenue des Fleurs, the Hôtel Amour Nice is just a stone’s throw from the Promenade des Anglais. Amour at the beach with its restaurant and private beach. The story of Hôtels Amour began in May 2006 with the opening of the first establishment in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, in Pigalle. The project was born of a vision: to create a unique, warm place that blends authenticity and creativity. The result was an instant success, and the Hôtel Amour became a true Parisian classic. Furnishings hunted down over the years, exceptional pieces dating from the 1930s to the 1950s, and contemporary works of art, including daring erotic montages. – Hôtels Amour
