This exhibition by Aurore Guez invites you to talk to the paintings—our photos.

Here, paintings aren’t content to be simply looked at... They speak! For a weekend, Aurore Guez takes over the Wilde Galerie, on the esplanade of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris (beside the Garden of Remembrance), with LE CAFÉ, a free exhibition to be discovered on April 25 and 26, 2026. Conceived as an immersive installation, this project turns the venue into a fictional café inhabited by interactive paintings, portraits with whom the public can interact, and a set design conceived as an extension of the artwork. Visitors move through a space where image, staging, and the visiting experience respond to one another. Entry is free, but pre-booking a time slot is required.

The project rests on a simple idea laid out in the exhibition’s introductory text: “What if the figures in the paintings could step out of their frames and sit down at the table with us?” Here, several portraits become unlikely conversational partners. Behind certain works, a button triggers phrases recorded by the subjects themselves. With each press, a different line is spoken at random, making every interaction unpredictable. Among the figures featured are Kalash, Lujipeka, and Anna Toumazoff, who lend their presence to this immersive experience. The exhibition also notes that Kalash recorded his voice to deepen the sense of immersion.

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The installation rests on a scenographic approach that extends the pictorial world of Aurore Guez. The space is conceived as a warped café, where the walls seem to twist and objects hover between stage set and painting’s extension. The aim is less dramatic display than disorienting the visitor’s usual bearings. Actors, cast as waiters, move through the space and become part of the scene. In a 80-square-meter footprint, the Wilde Galerie thus becomes the stage for a proposal whose boundaries between décor, performance, and artwork are not always clear.

Our take on the exhibition LE CAFÉ by Aurore Guez:

We were given a preview before the official opening. The space is fairly small, but the immersion is unparalleled: as the artist explains, stepping into the gallery is like stepping inside a painting, a universe inspired by Magritte and even Dali. You enter through the frame and dive into her lines and curves, through a décor designed from floor to ceiling, but above all in the details of the tables with hand-painted, checkered-tablecloths, as well as the plants and candlesticks. Regarding the works, every portrait depicts people the artist has met and who have inspired her path and practice.

Our recommendations:

Note that the space is compact, so you may brush shoulders with fellow visitors—but the visit operates on timed, reservation slots, so everyone should get the chance to experience it. Note that all the paintings are interactive: there are no projections or screens here, just real canvases painted by the artist. For interaction, some tables feature a device with a button; pressing it reveals random phrases you can also read on the menu on the table itself. Among the works, two are more immersive: here, an AI paired with the painting responds to you. Simply speak into a microphone to carry on a conversation.

Next to the exhibition, a real café awaits. The menu offers hot drinks, and there’s also a shop selling T-shirts featuring the artist’s creations. One caveat: you can’t drink inside the gallery—the artworks, aside from the paintings, are made of papier-mâché and cardboard.

There’s an extra layer of immersion with the servers (all of them actors) offering you fictitious coffees (think a “spilled” cup, a papier-mâché mug tipped over on its saucer) and sparking surreal conversations about time, life, and other everyday topics. Not ideal if you dislike interaction or performing, because participation is part of the experience. In short: a one-of-a-kind encounter.

With LE CAFÉ, Aurore Guez continues a practice of moving art away from its most prestigious exhibition spaces and closer to more familiar settings. It is a proposal that, at heart, probes how an exhibition can be experienced as much as it is observed today.

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