On Tuesday 20 October in Paris, amongst all the posh boutiques on the avenue Champs-Elysées bearing the scars and graffiti sprayed on shopfronts by rioters simply days earlier than, Maison Guerlain opened L’Heure des Possibles, an exhibition of works by 33 artists.
The items, 4 of which have been specifically commissioned and the remainder loaned, have been sourced in response to one among Guerlain’s signature perfumes, L’Heure Bleue, and the interval of twilight the perfume takes its identify from.
Wall-based works by well-known names together with James Turrell, Annette Messager, Christian Boltanski and Ugo Rondinone have been put in all through the historic maison alongside up-and-coming up to date artists equivalent to Marie Bovo, Xie Lei and Valentin Fougeray.
First based in 1828 by Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain, the Guerlain household constructed their hôtel particulier on the location in 1914.
“We’d like a second of blue after all of the black,” says Guerlain’s director of artwork, tradition and heritage, Ann-Carolin Prazan, relating to the demonstrations that protested the state of schooling and cost-of-living in France, and which have been overshadowed by violent outbreaks by some extremely far-left teams. A VIP night occasion marking the opening of the exhibition on 20 October at Maison Guerlain was cancelled.
“Paris is the capital of tradition,” Prazan provides. “Individuals wish to assist artists and tradition; we should not be felled. I believe we have now to say ‘sufficient!’ now.”
Set up view of L’Heure des Possibles at Maison Guerlain in Paris
© Guerlain
Regardless of President Emmanuel Macron saying “illegitimate” demonstrations will likely be banned over the approaching days, France is bracing for an additional spherical of rioting this weekend, with Artwork Basel in Paris asserting yesterday that it’s closing two days early as a security precaution (Guerlain is a bunch associate of Artwork Basel Paris). Steps have already been taken to take away and defend a few of the public sculptures which might be dotted across the French capital as a part of the Artwork Basel public programme.
Masion Guerlain, nevertheless, will stay open all weekend, in accordance with a spokesman.
The fragrance designer has an nearly 200-year historical past of collaborating with artists from Matisse to Yves Klein and Lee Ufan. Its well-known Bee Bottle, created in 1853 as a marriage current to Empress Eugenie de Montijo with Napoléon III, has been reinvented by up to date and avenue artists together with JonOne, Wassim Mraihi and Géraldine Gonzalez.
The corporate now has an enormous archive of 25,000 works in its warehouse, lots of them fragrance bottle designs.
For the previous 20 years, Guerlain has additionally held up to date artwork exhibitions within the flagship boutique—a programme that has supported up to date artists. The Paris-based artist Alexandra Mocanu, who has collaborated on an intricately embroidered work with the Swiss inventive studio Retinaa, says Guerlain’s assist has been “essential” whereas she seems to be for a gallery within the French capital.
Prazan says she was uncertain when she first began putting in Trendy and up to date artwork within the maison in 2006. “It’s hardly a white dice,” she factors out. “But it surely works.”
Not like different luxurious manufacturers, Guerlain has remained streamlined within the merchandise it makes, sticking to fragrances, skincare and make-up. That is maybe unsurprising, on condition that the corporate was purchased out in 1994 by LVMH, the world’s largest luxurious items conglomerate which manages greater than 75 manufacturers and made greater than €80.8bn in income in 2025. François Pinault, who owns LVMH, is one among France’s greatest artwork collectors, although the Guerlain assortment stays a definite entity.
The main target is now on the two hundredth anniversary of Guerlain in 2028, when a worldwide exhibition that includes 20 artists is because of happen in Korea, Dubai, the US, China and Japan, amongst different locations. “It’s going to be large, and it’s going to be completely distinctive,” Prazan says.
