At the Grand Palais in Paris, Grottesco by Eva Jospin transforms the monumental space into an immersive environment where landscape, architecture and imagination are held in tension. The exhibition unfolds not as a sequence of isolated works but as a single, continuous experience, designed to be crossed rather than observed, prompting the viewer to lose and repeatedly recalibrate their bearings. The title recalls the historical origin of the term grotesque, linked to the Renaissance rediscovery of the frescoes of the Domus Aurea, yet here it becomes a lens through which to read a visual universe suspended between nature and artifice. Grottoes, ruins, forests and architectural structures appear as fragments of a mental landscape rather than as realistic references. The installation develops through layers, alternating density and openness, compression and release, creating an unstable balance that constantly reshapes the perception of space. For this project, Jospin expands her formal vocabulary with works conceived specifically for the Grand Palais. Alongside vegetal architectures and constructions evoking cenotaphs or archaeological settings, the exhibition introduces pieces that explore materials and techniques less familiar in her practice, including bas-reliefs and textile elements, without breaking the overall coherence of the project. Craft remains central, but it serves an experience grounded in duration, movement and exploration rather than frontal contemplation. Grottesco fits into a research trajectory that has long examined the relationship between constructed nature and exhibition space, here pushed to a broader and more ambitious scale. The Grand Palais becomes an active component of the work itself, not merely a container but a surface onto which the artist’s imagery attaches and unfolds.
