{"id":1553,"date":"2026-10-20T02:14:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/honargardi.com\/en\/?p=1553"},"modified":"2026-11-07T16:38:45","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T13:08:45","slug":"the-wings-of-peace-vers-la-paix-perpetu-ailes-paris-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/honargardi.com\/en\/the-wings-of-peace-vers-la-paix-perpetu-ailes-paris-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wings of Peace: ORLAN, Esther Ferrer, Oleg Kulik, L\u00e9a Le Bricomte and \u00c9meric Lhuisset Open in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday 19 October 2026, the group exhibition Vers la paix perp\u00e9tu-aile(s) \/ The Wings of Peace<\/em> opened at 84 rue de Turenne, in Paris\u2019s 3rd arrondissement, with a preview evening from 5 pm to 9 pm. Honargardi was there. The show brings together five artists of different generations \u2014 ORLAN, Esther Ferrer, Oleg Kulik, L\u00e9a Le Bricomte and \u00c9meric Lhuisset \u2014 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.<\/p>\n\n

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ORLAN\u2019s sculpture Pour la paix perp\u00e9tu-aile(s)<\/em>, which gave the exhibition its name, in front of one of Oleg Kulik\u2019s photographs. Photograph: Kasra Aliha<\/a>. Artworks \u00a9 the artists.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

A peace with wings<\/h2>\n

The title is a pun that resists translation. Paix perp\u00e9tuelle<\/em> (\u201cperpetual peace\u201d) is the phrase Kant used in his 1795 essay on ending war; here the French word aile<\/em> (\u201cwing\u201d) is folded into it. The result is a peace with wings \u2014 light, mobile, easily lost. ORLAN gave the title to one of her sculptures, and it then became the name of the whole exhibition.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

How the show came together<\/h2>\n

In a recorded conversation with Kasra Aliha<\/a> of Honargardi, the exhibition\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The curator\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

ORLAN: the dove after the Louvre<\/h2>\n

ORLAN (born 1947 in Saint-\u00c9tienne) has used her own body as her raw material since the 1960s and is best known for what she calls \u201ccarnal art\u201d, set out in a 1989 manifesto. According to the curator\u2019s 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 Le\u00e7ons d\u2019artiste<\/em> lecture series. At the centre stands the sculpture Pour la paix perp\u00e9tu-aile(s)<\/em> (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\u2019Origine de la guerre<\/em> (2023), whose title alludes to Courbet\u2019s L\u2019Origine du monde<\/em>. The exhibition labels also list two 2026 canvases from the series Nous sommes inconsolables<\/em> (\u201cWe are inconsolable\u201d), La mort de la mort<\/em> and Manifeste contre les horreurs de notre \u00e9poque<\/em>, which combine an AI-generated image, digital photomontage and paint. Courtesy of the artist and Ceysson & B\u00e9n\u00e9ti\u00e8re.<\/p>\n\n\n

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ORLAN, Pour la paix perp\u00e9tu-aile(s)<\/em> (2024). Photograph: Kasra Aliha<\/a>. Courtesy of the artist and Ceysson & B\u00e9n\u00e9ti\u00e8re.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Esther Ferrer: toys and weapons<\/h2>\n

Esther Ferrer (born 1937 in San Sebasti\u00e1n, 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 Vel\u00e1zquez Prize in 2014. She shows four mixed-media works from her series Jeux \u00e9ducatifs<\/em> (\u201cEducational Games\u201d), which she has continued since 1979 and which rework weapons of war. The curator\u2019s press kit sums up the idea: between a child\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n

Oleg Kulik: images from the 1990s that still feel current<\/h2>\n

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<\/em>: \u00c0 l\u2019\u00c9glise<\/em> (\u201cAt the Church\u201d) and \u00c0 la maison<\/em> (\u201cAt Home\u201d). 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. \u00a9 Oleg Kulik, all rights reserved.<\/p>\n\n

L\u00e9a Le Bricomte: disarming the materials of war<\/h2>\n

L\u00e9a 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<\/em> (2012), military medals and ribbons hung from a brass bar, a nod to Jackson Pollock\u2019s drip paintings, and two Spirit Houses<\/em> (2019\u20132020), models of monuments rebuilt from neutralised ammunition on wooden bases, which from a distance look like temples. The labels also list Free Rider<\/em>, a First World War shell mounted on skateboard wheels, and two objects from the series Guerres de tribus<\/em> (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 \u2014 a first step towards peace? The curator described the gesture as an ironic, even humorous way \u201cto turn something bad into something good.\u201d Courtesy of the artist.<\/p>\n\n\n

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L\u00e9a Le Bricomte, Spirit Houses<\/em> (2019\u20132020), with Dripping Medals 3<\/em> (2012) behind. Photograph: Kasra Aliha<\/a>. Courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

\u00c9meric Lhuisset: the Cossacks\u2019 reply<\/h2>\n

\u00c9meric Lhuisset (born 1983) studied art at the Beaux-Arts de Paris and geopolitics at Panth\u00e9on-Sorbonne University and the \u00c9cole normale sup\u00e9rieure, 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\u2019entends au loin la r\u00e9ponse des cosaques<\/em> (\u201cFrom far away, I hear the Cossacks\u2019 reply\u201d; Ukraine, 2023), a photographic reconstruction of Ilya Repin\u2019s painting Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks<\/em>, 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. \u00a9 \u00c9meric Lhuisset.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A view of the exhibition at the opening: ORLAN\u2019s sculpture at the centre, \u00c9meric Lhuisset\u2019s large photograph behind it, and the medal ribbons of L\u00e9a Le Bricomte at left. Photograph: Kasra Aliha<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Visiting<\/h2>\n