Louise Hervé & Chloé Maillet and Ciprian Muresan at Frac Champagne-Ardenne

The chapel of the former Jesuit college in Reims initially appears empty to visitors expecting a solo exhibition by Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet. A mediator draws attention to the trompe-l'œil elements in the chapel's decor, linking them to the diorama technique invented by Daguerre in the 19th century, Bernard Palissy's life casts from the 16th century, and the two-color Technicolor of Michael Curtiz's films. As is typical for this artist duo, the work is a powerful, illustrated narrative (existing in three versions) constructed beforehand and conveyed to the visitor by a mediator. Confusion is skillfully maintained between fiction and reality, with the metaphor of trompe-l'œil fitting playfully. In contrast, Ciprian Muresan's exhibition presents narrative in a more material but bitter tone. Born in Ceaușescu's Romania, Muresan develops simple, poetic gestures—drawings slipped into the pages of literary masterpieces—that are not without sharp critique. The puppet in the film Recycled Playground, placed in a trash can, repeats "I protest against myself," an exhausted figure of political protest in Romania, whose disenchanted anaphora recalls Kafka or Ionesco.