Galerie Party, Centre Pompidou – Acte I

On the occasion of the Centre Pompidou 40th anniversary celebrations, Paris-based Studio GGSV, composed of designers Gaëlle Gabillet and Stéphane Villard, has been invited to imagine an unprecedented event for the Galerie des enfants. Galerie Party is a fictional journey to the heart of the National Museum of Modern Art, of its architecture, works of art and history. A play in three acts takes place in a phantasmagorical garden where a strange blue house with a psychedelic floor stands.

The garden

It all begins with a surreal garden in which children are invited to celebrate the anniversary of the Centre. The floor is a vast graphic playground, organized around a central sculpture that looks like a birthday cake. Different zones suggest interactions between 2D and 3D. Sometimes landscaped scenery, sometimes graphic framework, the patterns produce playful perspectives. They flirt with trompe l’œil and awaken perception.

The house

In this garden, a strange house stands. A large inflatable structure – the Galeroom – springs from its chimney, as a nod to the architectural event that the Pompidou Centre provoked in 1977. The blue pipes that run through the building seem to have been diverted to blossom into a joyous rotunda. They become the theatre of a collection of unusual objects. It is said that this house was built by two small characters, Gellaé & Séphante, who have been living for years in the twists and turns of the Pompidou Centre. This house is their workshop and laboratory.

The fountain

“Séphante, I had an incredible dream! I walked into an art gallery and at the bottom of the corridor I saw a fountain of paint. As I leaned over the basin, shapes came out! As soon as I thought of one thing, it came out of the fountain. The fountain created the shapes that were in my head! One after another!” Séphante found this dream marvellous. He decided to build this fountain to please Gellaé. On the floor of the Galeroom, a mysterious fountain produces coloured shapes that the two little characters assemble to create their own world.

The game

The forms produced by the fountain are displayed in the garden. Children are invited to use this funny collection to compose all the totems, vessels, furniture, constructions, machines and thingummies that the imagination can reveal. The principle is simple: all forms can combine and assemble. This formal alphabet draws its inspiration from the visual arts, nature, architecture, design and everyday life. The ranges are figurative, functional and symbolic.

“In response to the Pompidou Centre’s invitation to celebrate its 40th anniversary, we had in mind the idea of a home, both welcoming and extravagant, a metaphor for the Centre and its history. We wanted to offer children a totally immersive environment that they could modify and occupy with their own creations. We wanted to share with them the pleasure of composing, of creating freely and joyfully. We made sure to give things a beautiful materiality. As a backdrop, a fiction presents two small characters, Gellaé & Séphante, who have been walking for forty years in the museum’s exhibitions and galleries. By observing works of art that they do not always understand, they have taken the liberty of distorting and appropriating forms, colours and textures in order to build their own world. Some forms refer to the works of artists from the museum’s collection, such as René Magritte, Ettore Sottsass, Sol LeWitt, Giuseppe Penone, Franz West, Karel Appel, Salvador Dali and Gaetano Pesce. Artworks become constitutive elements of a construction set. Children can touch, assemble, sculpt, design. They experience the pleasure of creating on an exceptional scale. And what could be more joyful than playing together with the toys of the one who invites?” Gaelle Gabillet and Stéphane Villard, Studio GGSV