Magasins Généraux: Valentine Gardiennet's free, zany, offbeat exhibition in Pantin (93)

The Magasins Généraux in Pantin (93) are opening their doors to Valentine Gardiennet for a free exhibition from March 22 to May 18, 2025. With "It Takes a Village", the artist transforms the space into a fantasy village, oscillating between dream and weirdness, for a unique immersion experience.

Les Magasins Généraux, a cultural hotspot in Pantin (93), is giving Valentine Gardiennet carte blanche for a free exhibition-residency from March 22 to May 18, 2025. With It Takes a Village, the artist completely reinvents the space, transforming it into a fantasized, immersive and surprisingly strange village. A merry bazaar to explore.

A village like no other...

Here, everything shifts into another dimension. Giant dolls with enigmatic looks, a papier-mâché theater troupe in the midst of imaginary rehearsals, ghosts watching over an XXL metal bed, from which an intriguing soundtrack emanates... The walls, scrawled with colored pencils, sketch out a dream house. Halfway between an overgrown theater set, a deserted amusement park and an oversized nursery, this universe plays on contrasts, oscillating between wonder and delicious unease.

Strength in numbers (and in art)

The title of the exhibition, certainly a nod to the proverb "It takes a village to raise a child", takes on its full meaning here. In this zany, poetic microcosm, the characters are like us: shy, awkward, jealous, funny, enthusiastic, dented... but they move forward together. An ironic and critical reflection on theimportance of social ties and those figures - real or fictional - who guide and carry us.

Valentine Gardiennet, architect of a reinvented world

A graduate of Villa Arson (Nice) in 2020, Valentine Gardiennet plays with scale and perception. Using drawings, ceramics, papier-mâché and plaster, she deploys her sketches in space, creating life-size interactive scenarios where anything can happen. Inspired by pop culture, fantasy and childhood, she hijacks everyday elements with mischief and a touch of malice.

With this exhibition at Les Magasins Généraux, the largest of her career, she plunges us into a crazy, immersive artistic universe that's not to be missed!