In Venice, Maison Lune Offers an Immersive Experience in a Space With a Residential Feel, Where Everything is on Sale
For many, visiting a gallery can be intimating. Starting from this observation, Sandrine Abessera and Lubov Azria decided to launch something different. Both from the fashion world, they used their previous experiences to imagine an immersive concept, distinct from a standard retail space.
Maison Lune is a contemporary art and design gallery that looks like a private home, inviting visitors to discover the pieces that are showcased in context. This approach is meant to help anyone imagine how an object, an artwork or a piece of furniture could work in a daily environment where functionality and beauty meet.
The house where Maison Lune is nestled, in the heart of Venice, spreads over 4,000 square feet. While the building had good bones when Abessera and Azria found it—including high ceilings, limestone floors and a skylight—they worked with Gabriella Kuti for the interior design to make the space work for their needs. More shelving was created to exhibit the creations of the artists, artisans and designers, and the project also consisted in bringing even more natural light inside.
Planning to organize four exhibitions a year, Abessera and Azria launched Maison Lune with “Transcendence” curated by Gaïa Jacquet-Matisse. With works by Sophie Matisse, Bobbie Oliver, Jeannie Weissglass, Edson Fernandes, James Fischetti, Angela Damman and Santiago Martinez Peral, the show—which will be on view until the end of Frieze Los Angeles 2023 from Feb. 16-19—examines the concept of duality within our existence.
“Everything coexists together and is connected and interdependent, yet we continue an age-old struggle to build our sense of self by focusing on what sets us apart from one another,” says the curator.
“With all the distractions of the modern world as we know it today, it has become far too common to feel disconnected, not only from nature, but also from our collective origins and instinctive intuitions. As an extension of oneself, art is the contextualization of the human condition in relation to the world that surrounds us. (…) Art is able to change our perception of reality, in order to bring consciousness to the inevitable interconnectedness of life. Once we are faced with nature in all its capacities, we have the opportunity to better understand ourselves.”
Multidisciplinary, Maison Lune’s selection includes a diversity of mediums and techniques—such as painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, design and textiles—and has the objective of representing the changing and varied cultural landscape of identities, values and beliefs.
Maison Lune | lamaisonlune.com
Photos: Ye Rin Mok
