A plunge into mysticism, between mirror and tarot... This is what Galerie La Lison in Paris has in store for you with 22 Miroirs Initiatiques, a mystical exhibition by Léa Barrier, photographic artist, visual artist, tattoo artist and Référentiel de Naissance practitioner, from May 22 to July 5, 2025. In this series of 22 color self-portraits, the artist explores her own identity through the major arcana of the tarot, creating a symbolic ice palace, where each image is a mirror of the soul.
In front of the lens, Léa Barrier doesn't just capture an image: she embodies, interprets and channels it. For three years, she has been working introspectively, portraying herself in allegorical compositions inspired by the symbols of the tarot. Each self-portrait corresponds to a major arcanum: 22 figures, 22 archetypes, 22 inner truths laid bare.
As you stroll through the gallery, you discover as many roles: sometimes warrior, sometimes shaman, sometimes alchemist, often between genres or out of time. Each photograph becomes an initiatory threshold, a door between the visible and the invisible, a symbolic mirror that calls out to you.
If you are sensitive to the representation of the sacred feminine, to metamorphosis or to the power of images, you will find in this exhibition an unprecedented field of exploration. It's a mystical, poetic and contemplative exhibition, far from a traditional exhibition... And with good reason: it's a sensory and meditative experience!
Léa Barrier, who also works as a tattoo artist under the name Baybay Blondy at the La Bête Humaine salon at the back of the art gallery, sees photography as a ritual of self-knowledge. Drawing on the visual codes of the tarot, she transforms the image into a tool for inner transformation. Every color, every pose, every veil is part of a secret language. Carmine red, celestial blue, solar gold and pure white are not there to please, but to speak to the unconscious. The omnipresent black background creates a blank canvas where the soul can emerge, in a form of purity dense with symbols.
And what would you read in these 22 mirrors? This work of self-portraiture, the fruit of a profound dialogue between art and esotericism, invites you to contemplate your own reflection through the prism of these archetypes. Behind each self-portrait lies an initiatory tale, a lived experience, a truth to be revealed. It's not a simple game of appearances: it's a journey, where the artist becomes in turn a witch, an oracle, an androgynous or a cosmic lover, embodying the universal figures of the tarot.
The origins of this project lie in the tarot as a narrative system, a visual and spiritual language. Far from the clichés associated with divination, Léa Barrier draws her inspiration from the teachings of theGeorges Colleuil school, for whom each card is a mirror of the self. This approach is rooted in a long tradition of artists - from Nerval to Dali, from Breton to Niki de Saint Phalle - who have seen the tarot as a source of creation and reflection.
If you've always been fascinated by symbols, myths or archetypes, this exhibition will speak to you at the deepest level. It welcomes you into a gallery of the soul, where every glance you meet, every artist's face, is also a fragment of yourself. Let yourself be guided, like Alice, in this crossing of the mirror, where contemporary art mingles with the sacred, and where the quest for the other becomes a quest for the self.
In short, an experience to be enjoyed, a visual rite of passage to be discovered at Galerie La Lison, a stone's throw from the bustling boulevards but in a hushed, almost timeless atmosphere. A break from the hustle and bustle, an invitation to get back to basics.
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Dates and Opening Time
From May 22, 2025 to July 5, 2025
Location
galerie La Lison
5 Rue Pierre Chausson
75010 Paris 10
Access
Metro line 4 "Château d'eau" station
Prices
Free
Official website
www.galerie-la-lison.com
More information
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
