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The Wings of Peace: ORLAN, Esther Ferrer, Oleg Kulik, Léa Le Bricomte and Émeric Lhuisset Open in Paris

On Monday 19 October 2026, the group exhibition Vers la paix perpétu-aile(s) / The Wings of Peace opened at 84 rue de Turenne, in Paris’s 3rd arrondissement, with a preview evening from 5 pm to 9 pm. Honargardi was there. The show brings together five artists of different generations — ORLAN, Esther Ferrer, Oleg Kulik, Léa Le Bricomte and Émeric Lhuisset — around one question: how can war be spoken about, and peace imagined, today? It is on view until 31 October, from 11 am to 7 pm, and is a collateral exhibition of Art Basel Paris 2026.

A white sculpture of a figure in a pleated robe and tall conical headpiece, arms outstretched with a dove on each hand, beside a black-and-white photograph of a golden-domed cathedral; visitors in the background.
ORLAN’s sculpture Pour la paix perpétu-aile(s), which gave the exhibition its name, in front of one of Oleg Kulik’s photographs. Photograph: Kasra Aliha. Artworks © the artists.

A peace with wings

The title is a pun that resists translation. Paix perpétuelle (“perpetual peace”) is the phrase Kant used in his 1795 essay on ending war; here the French word aile (“wing”) is folded into it. The result is a peace with wings — light, mobile, easily lost. ORLAN gave the title to one of her sculptures, and it then became the name of the whole exhibition.

The organisers frame the show around conflict, power, violence, individual freedom and responsibility, explored through performance, photography, sculpture and conceptual work, with the body, memory, war symbols and political imagery at its centre.

How the show came together

In a recorded conversation with Kasra Aliha of Honargardi, the exhibition’s curator, Jean-Baptiste Chantoiseau, explained that the project began with ORLAN, chosen for her long-standing work in favour of peace; they felt that the sculpture that names the show carries a strong message for the present moment. While talking with her, the team decided to invite artists from other generations to add their own voices on how wars begin and how a real peace might be reached.

The curator’s press kit, like the ArtPil announcement, states that ORLAN invites four artists alongside her; in our recorded conversation, the curator described the invitations as a decision the team took while talking with her.

ORLAN: the dove after the Louvre

ORLAN (born 1947 in Saint-Étienne) has used her own body as her raw material since the 1960s and is best known for what she calls “carnal art”, set out in a 1989 manifesto. According to the curator’s press kit, she ended her third lecture at the Louvre, on 30 September 2026, with a flight of digital doves; the dove is the motif of her Leçons d’artiste lecture series. At the centre stands the sculpture Pour la paix perpétu-aile(s) (2024), in marble powder, made from a 3D scan and cast of her own body. Beside it are a black-and-white photograph of the same title (no. 1, 2024) and the lenticular digital photomontage L’Origine de la guerre (2023), whose title alludes to Courbet’s L’Origine du monde. The exhibition labels also list two 2026 canvases from the series Nous sommes inconsolables (“We are inconsolable”), La mort de la mort and Manifeste contre les horreurs de notre époque, which combine an AI-generated image, digital photomontage and paint. Courtesy of the artist and Ceysson & Bénétière.

A white sculpture of a figure with a tall conical headpiece and a pleated robe, holding a dove on each outstretched hand, on a white plinth in the gallery.
ORLAN, Pour la paix perpétu-aile(s) (2024). Photograph: Kasra Aliha. Courtesy of the artist and Ceysson & Bénétière.

Esther Ferrer: toys and weapons

Esther Ferrer (born 1937 in San Sebastián, based in Paris) is a pioneer of performance art in Spain; she was a member of the Zaj group from 1967 until it dissolved in 1996 and won the Velázquez Prize in 2014. She shows four mixed-media works from her series Jeux éducatifs (“Educational Games”), which she has continued since 1979 and which rework weapons of war. The curator’s press kit sums up the idea: between a child’s toy and an instrument of mass destruction there is sometimes only one step, once power is entrusted to childish, irresponsible leaders. Courtesy Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris.

Oleg Kulik: images from the 1990s that still feel current

Oleg Kulik (born 1961 in Kyiv) was a leading figure of Moscow actionism in the 1990s and is best known for performances in which he played a dog. The press kit presents him as a dissident Russian artist born in Kyiv, especially concerned by the current context, whose work centres on the visceral link between human and animal. He shows two photographs from 1999 after the series The Russian: À l’Église (“At the Church”) and À la maison (“At Home”). The press kit describes one image as a car destroyed in an iconic place in Moscow, where dogs have taken over the ground. In our recorded conversation, the curator described the pieces as images of life in Moscow, of violence in the street and of hope for peace. © Oleg Kulik, all rights reserved.

Léa Le Bricomte: disarming the materials of war

Léa Le Bricomte has long worked on the theme of war, handling its physical and symbolic materials and shifting their meaning. She shows Dripping Medals 3 (2012), military medals and ribbons hung from a brass bar, a nod to Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings, and two Spirit Houses (2019–2020), models of monuments rebuilt from neutralised ammunition on wooden bases, which from a distance look like temples. The labels also list Free Rider, a First World War shell mounted on skateboard wheels, and two objects from the series Guerres de tribus (2014): 120 mm mortar shells adorned with leather braiding, beads and feathers. According to the press kit, the artist deactivates war by diverting its means — a first step towards peace? The curator described the gesture as an ironic, even humorous way “to turn something bad into something good.” Courtesy of the artist.

A stepped, temple-like structure built from upright ammunition cartridges on a wooden plinth, with a wall of hanging coloured medal ribbons behind it.
Léa Le Bricomte, Spirit Houses (2019–2020), with Dripping Medals 3 (2012) behind. Photograph: Kasra Aliha. Courtesy of the artist.

Émeric Lhuisset: the Cossacks’ reply

Émeric Lhuisset (born 1983) studied art at the Beaux-Arts de Paris and geopolitics at Panthéon-Sorbonne University and the École normale supérieure, and teaches contemporary art and geopolitics at Sciences Po. Since 2004 he has worked in conflict zones including Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Colombia and Kurdistan, and he has returned to Ukraine repeatedly since 2014. In Paris he shows J’entends au loin la réponse des cosaques (“From far away, I hear the Cossacks’ reply”; Ukraine, 2023), a photographic reconstruction of Ilya Repin’s painting Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, made with the help of the Territorial Defence Forces (TRO Media), the 112th Brigade and the soldier Roman Gribov of Snake Island. The curator described him as a photographer committed to working in war zones and to bringing testimony through carefully composed images. © Émeric Lhuisset.

It mattered to the team, the curator said, to have in the same show an artist who works in Ukraine and one tied to Moscow, so that the exhibition could hold something between two countries now at war.

Wide view of the opening: the white dove-bearing sculpture on a plinth, a large photograph of soldiers around a table, and a framed black-and-white photograph of a figure with doves on the right wall, with visitors.
A view of the exhibition at the opening: ORLAN’s sculpture at the centre, Émeric Lhuisset’s large photograph behind it, and the medal ribbons of Léa Le Bricomte at left. Photograph: Kasra Aliha.

Visiting

Honargardi thanks Raphaël Chantoiseau, President of Bien En Place, for making this report possible.

Text and photographs: Kasra Aliha. Artworks © the artists; courtesy of the artist and Ceysson & Bénétière (ORLAN) and Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris (Esther Ferrer), as stated on the exhibition labels.

Sources: Tora and Art Foundation; Bien En Place; Our Culture (16 October 2026); ArtPil; ArtJobs; the curator’s press kit (9 October 2026) and the exhibition labels; artists’ sites and profiles: ORLAN, Esther Ferrer, Oleg Kulik, Léa Le Bricomte, Émeric Lhuisset.

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