SAINT-LOUIS-LÈS-BITCHE.- With the exhibition “Toute la beauté du monde” (All the Beauty of the World), the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès continues its mission of supporting contemporary creation. Léa Barbazanges, who lives and works in Strasbourg, presents about fifteen new works made from plant-, mineral- and animal-based materials and textures in the exhibition space of the Musée Saint-Louis.

Conceived as both a visual and sensorial experience curated by Estelle Pietrzyk, curator and chief heritage curator at the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (MAMCS), the exhibition appeals just as much to the eye as to the desire to touch.

Polymorphic, it reads like a snapshot of Léa Barbazanges’s work, where the different realms of life intertwine. Playing with variations between empty and full, visible and imperceptible, the artist crafts works that invite us to slow down our gaze and pay attention to that which typically escapes the eye.

The materials she chooses—algae, spider silk, organic membranes, minerals— are discreet, often inconspicuous. Through careful observation and patient handiwork they are transformed and magnified, revealing unexpected beauty. Some works evoke delicate tapestries, while others reveal patterns inspired by animal molts or natural microstructures, giving rise to a fragile and poetic world.

For the first time, the artist presents a collection of pieces dedicated to diatoms microalgae invisible to the naked eye, yet essential to the planet’s balance. Through a monumental form set in motion, she reveals their intricate architecture and complexity. The exhibition is punctuated by a line of mica—a naturally iridescent mineral—spanning several metres. Its vibrant, iridescent surface celebrates an unstable and elusive beauty. This unique immersive project is enhanced by a sound composition by musician Christine Ott, a specialist in ondes Martenot, inviting visitors on a sensory journey through the living world.

Since its creation, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès has provided ongoing support for the visual arts in its four exhibition spaces dedicated to contemporary creation: La Verrière in Brussels (Belgium), Le Forum in Tokyo (Japan), Atelier Hermès in Seoul (South Korea) and, since 2014, La Grande Place, Musée Saint-Louis in Saint-Louis lès-Bitche (France). Seen through the lens of craftsmanship, the exhibitions at La Grand Place, Musée Saint-Louis are conceived in cycles in collaboration between the local cultural institutions and the Cristallerie Saint-Louis. After four successful seasons in partnership with the Centre Pompidou-Metz, the 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine (Metz), the Centre d’Art Contemporain – La Synagogue de Delme and the Centre d’art Vente des Forêts, the Foundation has now entrusted its programming to the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (MAMCS) for four exhibitions from 2025 to 2027. Through this cycle, Estelle Pietrzyk, chief curator at the MAMCS, highlights artists whose practices are rooted in a rich local artistic environment.

Born in Rennes in 1985, Léa Barbazanges graduated from the Haute École des Arts du Rhin (HEAR). Attentive to “things of nature”, she develops a body of work that incorporates crystals, algae, spider silk, and more, to reveal their beauty.

Léa Barbazanges observes nature like no other, detecting micro and macroscopic landscapes that she reveals in her installations. The elements she selects are presented with infinite respect, her approach neither constraining nor exaggerating an arrangement that is already wonderful in its natural state.

With Léa Barbazanges, insect wings, plantain seeds and mica sheets—so delicate and fragile, yet so rich in form, function, and meaning—become the starting point for a spatial construction. Building from organic materials is one of the focal points of the artist’s unique work, which she sometimes designs with the advice of scientists.

Her work is part of several public and private collections (Fondation Bullukian in Lyon, Frac Alsace, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg, Musée Ziem in Martigues – the latter of which presented a solo exhibition of hers in 2022). Selected for the programme “Arts and Sciences” of the Diagonale Paris-Saclay in 2018, she also was shortlisted that same year to create stained glass windows for a chapel in the Chartres cathedral. Her work has been presented in various group exhibitions including “Sensations et impressions” on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Impressionism celebrated by the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg in 2024; “Phenomena” at the Stadtmuseum in Bad Dürkheim (Germany) in 2024; Experience #16, “Rêveries” at the Domaine Pommery in Reims in 2023; “Le Serpent cosmique” at the Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse; Utopia in Lille3000 in 2022. Her work has also been featured in solo presentations, including an exhibition at the Domaine de Kerguéhennec in Bignan in 2022 and “À la lisière du visible” at the Musée Ziem in Martigues in 2021.