Poesia recently installed an Insitu Mural installation at the Les Bains Douches project this past week in Paris. This impressive project is winding down and ended with a bang last weekend with a blowout party. With so much history as a historic nightclub Les bains douche hosted one more party before the doors closed for its transformation into a Hotel. In the artists words describing his installation, “I approached this installation with the idea to create a piece that would be done within one day much the same way any piece would be in an abandoned environment. Second I set out to take pieces of found ephemeral of the Les Bains and incorporate them into the installation. I have had this idea to incorporate collage into one of my murals for awhile and this proved to be the perfect place for it. I also came across a box of plates that matched my palette, the breaking of the plates was a spontaneous event reflecting upon the moment and its impermanence. There is always beauty in the broken. I finished the piece with the placement of a place mat with the words Bonjour reflecting upon not only the day but its rebirth time and again.” .
GF
Photographs courtesy of Stéphane Bisseuil
In June 2010, a court interdict sanctioning unauthorized building works almost spelt the end of the line for the most famous of all Parisian bath houses, despite nearly 130 years of history and multiple different incarnations. In 2011, we, as longstanding landlords of the site, founded La Société des Bains, in order to rescue, renovate and preserve this icon of Parisian life. Since then, renovation of Les Bains has been progressing daily, with absolute respect for the spirit of the place. Vincent Bastie is charged with the complete refurbishment of the building and Tristan Auer and Denis Montel/RDAI, the interior design. Architecturally speaking, these projects will be sensitive to the multiple layers of the history of the Bains Douches, preserving their legacy, while employing a redeeming spirit of innovation and eschewing any cloying nostalgia. Les Bains will be born again in the summer of 2014, for another long life to come. Occupying the entirety of the building, it will be a hybrid venue – a private residence, a hotel, a club? – it will be a chic, inventive, trans cultural, bohemian, historic, welcoming and elegant venue… Something novel.
But there will be a time of gestation before the tired, old building can undergo its wonderful metamorphosis: while awaiting its imminent transformation, the building now lies vacant for the first time in 128 years. In keeping with the artistic soul of the place, we have transformed this dead time into a fleeting, creative buzz. Les Bains will host an Artists’ Residency, and the whole building will be offered as a giant canvas for a plethora of urban artists commissioned by Magda Danysz. Colombe de La Taille/ADL Conseil will handle the whole event communication. A new generation of international talents will create an ephemeral artwork within and on the very walls which witnessed Proust and Basquiat, Joy Division, Warhol and Prince. A symbolic gesture to renew ties with a marvelous history and usher in a glorious future, a manifesto for proclaiming that the Bains Douches that we love so much, will survive… Long live Les Bains !
It’s the first page of LA SOCIETE DES BAINS and the return of the Bains Douches society.
Jean-Pierre Marois
SOCIÉTÉ DES BAINS
Direction du Projet : Jean-Pierre Marois
Management : Jean-Louis Corruble (jlc@lesbains-paris.com)
ADL CONSEIL
Communication / Presse : Colombe de La Taille
(ac.delataille@adlconseil.fr)
Presse : Raphaële Diais (r.diais@adlconseil.fr)
Rédacteur web : Maxime Lindon (adlconseil@adlconseil.fr)
ART CURATOR
Magda Danysz (www.magda-gallery.com)
assistée de Clémence Wolff (info@magda-gallery.com)
PHOTOGRAPHIE
Stéphane Bisseuil (www.stephanebisseuil.com)
Jérôme Coton (www.jeromecoton.fr)
RÉALISATION WEB
Design : Alexander Kellas, Creative Direction (www.alexanderkellas.com)
