Now gracing the atrium of the Bon Marche department store in Paris, two gigantic and playful figurines in blue paper celebrate the joyous discovery of books in the exhibition Mise en Page, curated by Sarah Andelman and on view until April 21, 2024. Featuring the Paper People of Jean Jullien, which first appeared in smaller scale as part of a solo show at the Parco Museum in Tokyo and captivated audiences with their coquettish whimsy and convivial charm, the building-sized sculptures within the Bon Marche can be caught atop a stack of paper books, one enraptured in reading while seated and the other standing in a good humored pose, impishly casting its wiggling arms to the balconies above as if reaching for a book from the shelves of a library. Spirited and affable, with vibrant colors and whimsical faces, Jean Jullien’s Paper People at the Bon Marche inspires a marvel of congenial emotions and draws attention to reading as a pursuit that sparks imagination and open minds, engaging and visionary.
As former creative director of Collette and now the founder of the agency Just An Idea, Sarah Andleman is no stranger to works that are literary, thought-provoking, and a feast for the imagination. By partnering with Phamily First and Korean brand NouNou, a creative label in part founded by the artist featured in the exhibition, Jean Jullien, Andleman envisioned Mise en Page as an all-engrossing experience that evokes a childlike wonder, engaging visitors in the magic of reading while exposing them to art that inspires awe and addresses playful notions of the clever and the cordial, inviting an engagement with art that is at once reflective and electrifying. With a coherent yet eclectic body of work, artist Jean Jullien is likewise familiar with art that arrests the fanciful and the ingenious, caressing the mind’s eye with joyously colorful characters outlined in black and seen in museums and galleries around the world from London to Los Angeles, Brussels to Berlin, New York to Seoul, and beyond. With his inquisitive and insightful Paper People at the Bon Marche this spring, Jullien reminds us of the curious dreams that keenly probing art inspires, with vivid colors that entice and a material that surprises in scale, a celebration of inviting charm that makes moving through this space piquant, enchanting, and bright.
March 2024
