Rien n’échappe à la lumière — Léonie Alma Mason, Odile Mir, Thomas Paquet — Bigaignon Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: March 9 → April 15, 2023

From 9 March to 15 April 2023, the exhibition entitled “Rien n’échappe à la lumière” (Nothing escapes the light), featuring the works of Odile Mir, Thomas Paquet and Léonie Alma Mason, brings together architecture, contemporary art, photography and design.

In 1993, the French sculptor and designer Odile Mir created La Nef Solaire. Located in the public space, near Avignon, in the South of France, the monumental work quickly established itself as an emblematic and mysterious monument, drawing several thousands of visitors each year. Coming straight out of the artist’s mind (and with the help of the astronomer Denis Savoie), this exceptional work of art was to become the largest sundial in the world. Like the faces of a modern pyramid, the large sails of white concrete, rising up to seventeen meters, cast the shadows of the Sun and Moon, and give passers-by the solar time.

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the sculpture, Léonie Alma Mason, architect and granddaughter of Odile Mir — together they founded LOMM Éditions in order to reissue Odile Mir’s creations — asks Thomas Paquet to revisit La Nef Solaire, thus committing himself in the intergenerational dialogue she had started with her grandmother. The encounter is an immediate match between the three creators and a large amount of fascinating ideas arise. Questioning the notions of space, light and time, Thomas Paquet found his alter ego in Odile Mir, and the two artists quickly set to work. Whether he be inspired by the Nef itself and its constituent elements, the trajectory of the sun and the measure of time, or by the poetry it induces, Thomas Paquet then composes a series of photosensitive pieces and develops 4-handed works, in close collaboration with the artist 50 years his senior.

But the exhibition by no means stops here though! When Léonie Alma Mason showed Thomas Paquet the pieces of furniture created by her grandmother in the 1970s that she is reediting, they decided to revisit the FILO maxi armchair. Thomas Paquet started to use the natural leather of the seat as a photosensitive surface, and exposed it to the sun according to a precise protocol, thus giving birth to three new and unique versions of the famous armchair by Odile Mir.

Through the inexhaustible sources of inspiration that are light and time, and without ever straying from the purity of the geometric forms prevailing both in Odile Mir’s La Nef Solaire and in the furniture by LOMM Éditions, Thomas Paquet created a variety of pieces, using all the techniques he cherishes, from photograms to cut-out pieces, photoengravings, silver gelatin prints and cyanotypes!

A concept book-object, placing the reader and the sun at the heart of the creation process, completes the exhibition and allows everyone to leave with a unique piece.