Victor Hugo wrote, “Memory is an invisible presence.” In this exhibition, the three artists presented, Ivan Arlaud, Julien Lischka, Vanessa Luschmann capture those suspended moments where absence becomes tangible, and where light sculpts the memory of places and objects. The three artists explore the staging of everyday life as a narrative space, where each object, each light, and each absence tells a story.
All three artists explore the evocative power of reality, that intimate space-time where objects can be transformed into silent witnesses of our existence. A breakfast interrupted, a half-open book, or a window opening onto a sunlit elsewhere. Their compositions always seem to echo a discreet presence, paradoxically evoking human presence through its absence, in rooms bathed in soft light. The omnipresence of still life in this exhibition serves as a reminder that each element is subject to reflection on the passing of time, capturing the instantaneous while suggesting the ephemeral.
Light plays a central role in these works, at times vibrant and radiant, at times soft and diffuse, sculpting space and revealing textures with an almost tactile precision. Here, it highlights the delicate pleats of a fabric in Julien Lischka’s work, recalling the silky draperies of 17th-century Flemish painters. There, it emphasizes the materiality of a lemon’s skin or a fig while giving a sculptural dimension to a white ceramic bowl. Elsewhere, it enhances the warmth of Ivan Arlaud’s interiors, where he explores patterns and chromatic harmonies. In Vanessa Luschmann’s compositions, light reflects off shiny surfaces, playing with the transparency of glass, making the materiality of objects almost tangible.
In Ivan Arlaud’s warm interiors, every detail—an open book, a slightly ajar door, a brightly patterned tablecloth—seems to whisper a story. His work engages in dialogue with the tradition of interior painters, where natural light appears to caress objects and instill a sense of tranquility. Arlaud orchestrates an interplay between indoors and outdoors, with windows opening onto Mediterranean landscapes, transforming his compositions into spaces for contemplation.
With Julien Lischka, light is both subject and medium. In his still lifes, the delicate transparency of glass, the smooth surfaces of ceramics, and the softness of drapery evoke a floating temporality, where time seems slowed down, frozen in a moment of pure contemplation. The vibrant contrasts in Panini and Tropico creates a cinematic atmosphere, suspended between realism and dreamlike imagery.
As for Vanessa Luschmann, her work is based on a subtle exploration of the unexpected, where each scene seems to capture a moment both mundane and imbued with mystery. Everyday moments interrupted, frozen flashes of celebration, vivid colors concealing a certain reverie—her empty spaces and objects recount intimacy in a silent narrative.
This exhibition is a conversation between three sensibilities that, each in their own way, explore the resonances of everyday life. Through these three perspectives, the exhibition examines the subtle boundary between the tangible and the impalpable, between what is shown and what is only implied. Drawing from the legacy of interior painting, still life, and landscape, Ivan Arlaud, Julien Lischka, and Vanessa Luschmann extend a pictorial tradition where material and light reveal the poetry of the everyday. The exhibited works are fragments of stories to be completed, memories to be reinvented, spaces where the viewer is invited to rethink their relationship with intimacy and the intangible.
