Léonore Chastagner's Ceramic Odes to Absence at Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou

Léonore Chastagner (b. 1992, France) presents a series of white clay ceramics at Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou in Paris, titled "Ce qu’il faut aimer est absent" (What Must Be Loved Is Absent), on view until July 24, 2026. The works transform everyday objects—sheets, blankets, hot water bottles, cardigans, balls of wool, hands holding a phone—into vessels of memory and absence. Chastagner's sculptures evoke a tactile familiarity, inviting viewers to project their own histories onto the forms. The exhibition draws parallels to Rodin's "L'Éternel Printemps" (1884), where bodies overflow and disappear into an embrace, and to Etel Adnan's poem "The Manifestations of the Voyage" (1990), which speaks of matter abandoning its laws. Chastagner renders absence palpable through cuts—bodies without heads, hands ending at the wrist—making the missing tangible and tolerable. The show is reviewed by Oriane Vittu de Kerraoul.