Musée-valise: The Imaginary Sea
The Fondation Carmignac, partnering with the GHU Paris psychiatry & neurosciences, presents the « Musée-valise: The Imaginary Sea », a miniature travelling museum designed as a modern-day cabinet of curiosities for hospitals and prisons.
Download the musée-valise press release (version zero)
The musée-valise project's aim is to answer the following question: Le projet musée-valise essaye de répondre à la problématique suivante : how can take a single box encapsulate all the riches of a contemporary art exhibition exploring the conceit of a subaquatic natural history museum?
FROM ISLAND TO ROOM: THE BLUE BOX
The musée-valise is a travelling version of the exhibition The Imaginary Sea, curated at the Villa Carmignac, Porquerolles Island, by Chris Sharp in 2021. It is designed to act as a miniature theatre on wheels, with each scene revealing new works of art.
As the case stages its own choreographed opening, works of art by the likes of Bianca Bondi, Jean Painlevé and Yves Klein come into view in a play of light, sound, and animated images. Hidden mechanisms inspired by stage magic, precision electronics tucked in the hinges, and a moving screen all add to the sense of drama in the miniature museum locked away in a wooden chest.
AN APPEAL TO SENSES AND MEMORY
"The musée-valise is a mental space, the physical representation of what is inside a mind. Each nook is home to a work of art, an idea, a vision, a memory. In reinventing the scenario scripted by curator Chris Sharp, the musée-valise unfolds the history of The Imaginary Sea in seven stages. In the time taken to present it to audiences – around half an hour – our perception of time and space teeters and slows, from the suspension of time in the movements captured in the underwater video to the gradual crescendo of the lights built into the case and the slow pace of looking and listening demanded by the artworks.
The musée-valise initially appears as a visual device, an object to study and that studies us, first by its own silent presence, then by its openings and apertures, then by the gaze of the artworks themselves. From its very inception, it seemed crucial to conceive of the device as an intrinsically multi-sensorial experience. Hence the soft materiality of the outer casing of stained wood, Michel Redolfi’s underwater sound recording, and the handleability of some of the works of art, like Julien Discrit’s fossil ammonite hand and Yves Klein’s blue pigment. The interaction between box, art and audience puts forward the idea of an embodied perception and art that impacts the mind as much as it does the body.
The musée-valise becomes a cultural time capsule holding deep-seated memories – fossil traces, archival films, sedimentations – alongside visions and future projections – artificial mutations, anthropic processes, poetic abstractions and scenarios.
The case as a whole enshrines a sort of collective memory of the original exhibition The Imaginary Sea, melded with the memories of the people who interact with the musée-valise to add their own experience of it."
Stephan Zimmerli, designer of the musée-valise
THERAPEUTIC USE AND CIRCULATION OF THE MUSÉE-VALISE
The musée-valise is for audiences with care needs, their visitors, and medical staff, all of whom often find it hard to visit museums in person due to health issues or other material or logistical barriers.
The Hôpital Sainte-Anne experiment, 2023–24
The musée-valise was invited to the hospital’s psychiatry and neuroscience department under the supervision of Dr Gorog and Dr Egger. The aim was to bring in new therapeutic approaches involving patients, their friends and family, and healthcare staff under the watchful eye of a therapist, carving out time for new encounters, forging new bonds, and opening up access to a vital clinic.
The project brought together patients, their friends and family, and staff, giving the hospital the opportunity to create fragile yet tangible links between all the stakeholders in the healthcare service.
The Hôpital Lyon-Sud experiment, 2024–25
The psychologist Laure Mayoud used the musée-valise to bring patients into fleeting contact with culture and beauty. More than the mere presence of a work art by the patient’s bedside – in and of itself a rich source of potential benefits – the case unfolded an entire exhibition. Under Laure Mayoud’s skilful baton, a visit to the musée-valise was rounded off with poetry readings and a bespoke olfactory experience composed by a master perfumer.
THE MUSÉE-VALISE'S JOURNEY (2023 - )
The musée-valise project has been presented at various events.
September 2023: Project launch at GHU Sainte-Anne, Paris
March 2024: M Le Monde Festival, two days of workshops at École Duperré, Paris
April 2024: SITEM Exhibition, stand and conference at the Louvre, Paris
June 2024: Greenshift Festival, conference, Monaco
October 2024: The Grand Exhibition of Made in France, exhibition at the Palais de l'Élysée, Paris
August 2025: Osaka Universal Exhibition, exhibition and conference at the France Pavilion, Japan
From September 2023 to December 2024: the zero version of the musée-valise was in residence at GHU Sainte-Anne, Paris.
From January to summer 2025: the zero version of the musée-valise was in residence at Lyon Sud Hospital.
Works & artists
The miniature exhibition comprises a number of original works of art.
These include photographs by Jean Painlevé, Nicolas Floc’h, Michael E. Smith, and Dora Maar, and films by Shimabuku and Julian Charrière. As media that can be reproduced, they are faithful to the original. The musée-valise also presents original works created specifically for the project by Hubert Duprat and Michel Redolfi, alongside editions of original works by Bianca Bondi, Julien Discrit, Lin May Saeed ,and Micha Laury, produced by the artists themselves or under the guidance of their rights holders. The test tube of International Klein Blue holds a sample of original IKB pigment generously donated by the Klein Archive.
The travelling museum features 18 works in total, two of which can be handled by visitors – Julien Discrit’s sculpture and the test tube of International Klein Blue pigment.
ARTWORKS AND ARTISTS:
Bianca Bondi - The Fall and Rise, 2021-2023 – sculpture and installation based on crystallised salt
Julian Charrière – Midnight zone, 2025 (Extract from the original 56 minutes-movie)
Julien Discrit - Pierre (Double hélice), 2023 – sculpture
Hubert Duprat – De la pelle à la rame, 2025 – sculpture
Nicolas Floc’h - Paysages productifs, invisible, Anse de l’arène -4m, 2018 - photograph
Nicolas Floc’h - Paysages productifs, invisible / parallèle, Porquerolles, 2021 - photograph
Nicolas Floc’h - Paysages productifs, Bulles, site acide ph 5.5, -3m, Vulcano, Sicile, 2019 – photograph
Nicolas Floc’h - Paysages productifs, initium maris, plouha, 2019 - photograph
David Horvitz - See the sea being (2021) - book made for the exhibition The Imaginary Sea
Yves Klein - Test tube of pure blue Klein pigment
Micha Laury - Méduses, 2021- silicone sculpture
Dora Maar (Henriette Theodora Markovitch, dite) - Sans titre (Main-coquillage), around 1934 - photograph
Jean Painlevé - Pince de homard, 1929 - photograph
Jean Painlevé - Buste de l’hippocampe, 1931 - photograph
Lin May Saeed - Sea Dragon Relief, 2018 – polystyrene sculpture
Michael E. Smith - Untitled, 2011 – photograph
Shimabuku - Leaves Swim, 2011 - video in color, 2min30
Michel Redolfi - HUMPBACK Moorea island, 2022 - Underwater sound recording off the coast of the Polynesian island of Moorea, 4min40.
MUSÉE-VALISE VERSION ZERO
There are three versions of the musée-valise "The Imaginary Sea".
The first was built in 2023, followed by two newer designs in 2025.
In the first version of the musée-valise:
- works by Jochen Lempert replaced those by Nicolas Floc’h
- one work by Miquel Barceló replaced those by Lin May Saeed and Micha Laury
- a Paul Klee facsimile replaced the artwork by Hubert Duprat.
This was the version used at the GHU Hôpital Sainte-Anne in Paris and the hospital in Lyon. It will continue its journey elsewhere at the hospital in Paris and at La Santé prison.
ARTWORKS AND ARTISTS OF THE VERSION ZÉRO:
Miquel Barceló - Ressac, 2023 - wood engraving
Bianca Bondi - The Fall and Rise, 2021-2023 – sculpture and installation based on crystallised salt
Julien Discrit - Pierre (Double hélice), 2023 - sculpture
David Horvitz - Teardrops - little glass beads, 2023
David Horvitz - See the sea being (2021) - book made for the exhibition The Imaginary Sea
Paul Klee - Aquarium, 1921 - facsimile
Yves Klein - Test tube of pure blue Klein pigment
Jochen Lempert - Untitled (Plastic Bag I, II, III), 2017 – photograph
Jochen Lempert - Untitled (Seadragon), 2016 – photograph
Jochen Lempert - Untitled (Aquarium, Toronto), 2017 – photograph
Jochen Lempert - Untitled (Automimikry), 2018 – photograph
Dora Maar (Henriette Theodora Markovitch, dite) - Sans titre (Main-coquillage), around 1934 - photograph
Jean Painlevé - Pince de homard, 1929 - photograph
Jean Painlevé - Buste de l’hippocampe, 1931 - photograph
Jean Painlevé - La Pieuvre, 1928 - black and white film, 13min
Lin May Saeed - Sea Dragon Relief, 2018 – polystyrene sculpture
Michael E. Smith - Untitled, 2011 – photograph
Shimabuku - Leaves Swim, 2011 - video in color, 2min30
Michel Redolfi - HUMPBACK Moorea island, 2022 - Underwater sound recording off the coast of the Polynesian island of Moorea, 4min40.
The Fondation Carmignac extends warm thanks to all the artists, rights holders, and gallerists who lent the project such active and generous support.
The Imaginary Sea
The exhibition The Imaginary Sea lets visitors explore a subaquatic natural history museum. The featured works of art evoke a magical, enchanted sea and, more worryingly, one that vanishes outside our own imaginations. The Imaginary Sea celebrates the poetic power of the oceans, exploring our relationship with the sea and its fauna, and sparks a strange sense of nostalgia for something not yet lost.
The team
Director: Charles Carmignac
Designer: Stephan Zimmerli
Expert advisors: Dr Mathias Gorog and Dr Laurène Egger, GHU Paris Psychiatrie & Neurosciences
Curator of the original exhibition The Imaginary Sea: Chris Sharp
Project manager: Amélie Blanchy
Maker: Henri Terreaux
Lighting: Alexis Coussement and Frédéric Audoux
Printing: Initial Labo
Frames and plinths: Version Bronze
Travelling project managers and PR: Olivier Ibañez and Aurore Gallarino, Fondation Carmignac
PRESS RELEASE OF THE PROJECT
Learn more about the project and the artworks' labels.