Louis Vuitton to unveil works of Ernest Pignon-Ernest in Venice

In a departure from convention, Louis Vuitton will abstain from participating in Milan Design Week, scheduled from April 16 to 21. Instead, the luxury label under the LVMH umbrella has chosen to redirect its focus to another significant cultural affair, the 60th International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale, slated from April 17 to 19, by curating an exhibition in Venice exclusively dedicated to the French artist Ernest Pignon-Ernest.

Entitled ‘Je est un autre’ (I is another), the exhibition, curated by Suzanne Pagé and Hans Ulrich Obrist in collaboration with Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, is already poised to be one of the most eagerly anticipated parallel events of the Biennale. It will take place at the Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia, situated near the iconic St. Mark’s Square, from April 20 until November 24. This initiative is part of the ‘Hors-les murs’ program, a series of initiatives conducted by the Louis Vuitton Foundation across its diverse spaces in Tokyo, Munich, Beijing, Seoul, and Osaka.

The Foundation has invited the esteemed visual artist Ernest Pignon-Ernest to craft a bespoke exhibition tailored to its Venetian space, centering around the profound theme of “the foreigner,” a motif deeply cherished by this pioneering figure in urban art renowned for his political and social engagement, and his large-scale screen-prints adorning public spaces.

From sketches and drawings to stencils and collages, the artist meticulously places his images, often life-size portraits of poets or marginalized individuals such as migrants and wanderers, onto the walls of emblematic locations resonating with the themes he explores. These portraits, including those of Arthur Rimbaud, Antonin Artaud, Jean Genet, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, presented through evocative photographs, constitute the very essence of this exhibition, further enriched by the inclusion of two new faces, those of poets Anna Akhmatova from Russia and Forough Farrokhzad from Iran.