Ann?
Group exhibition with Dandy Day, François Dufeil x Collectif Grapain, Valentine Gardiennet, Laura Gozlan, Laila Majid, Tiffany Wellington
Le Wonder, Bobigny
Based on a reading of The Turn of the Screw (1898) by Henry James, Ann? asks: how can one ‘start from’ literature in order to create an exhibition, without making an exhibition about literature? There is no need to have read the novel—a ‘sacrifice’, according to E. M. Forster, who concluded, tersely: ‘Beautifully done, but not worth doing.’ Rather, the aim is to draw out a few threads from the Jamesian tapestry (a somewhat heavy metaphor, were it not James’s own), which the artists have chosen to extend.
One such thread is precisely that of difficulty: to what end does the text mire us in its hesitant rhythm, at times fractured by its own ellipses, by misunderstandings between characters, and by the fluctuations of our attention? What are we circling around? More broadly, the exhibition considers how a work opens itself to interpretation by drawing us into its gaps, prompting us to co-construct a meaning for which, whether it suits us or not, we also become responsible.
The works brought together in Ann? inhabit a state of uncertainty, at times marked by sudden shifts in atmosphere; at moments restrained, at others opening doors they never close, they pass on the torch, modulating and distributing their own agency among themselves and with those who encounter them.
One such thread is precisely that of difficulty: to what end does the text mire us in its hesitant rhythm, at times fractured by its own ellipses, by misunderstandings between characters, and by the fluctuations of our attention? What are we circling around? More broadly, the exhibition considers how a work opens itself to interpretation by drawing us into its gaps, prompting us to co-construct a meaning for which, whether it suits us or not, we also become responsible.
The works brought together in Ann? inhabit a state of uncertainty, at times marked by sudden shifts in atmosphere; at moments restrained, at others opening doors they never close, they pass on the torch, modulating and distributing their own agency among themselves and with those who encounter them.
Curation: Estelle Marois
Exhibition design: Grégoire Borach
Cushion design: Hélène Paris
Graphic design: Cédric Pierre
Exhibition design: Grégoire Borach
Cushion design: Hélène Paris
Graphic design: Cédric Pierre
This exhibition was made possible with the support of Fluxus Art Projects.
April 8, 2026
