Design is Bienvenue at the La Louisiane Hotel

The place is legendary. The La Louisiane Hotel has harbored the passions of Miles Davis and Juliette Gréco. It was also Simone de Beauvoir’s favorite, where she used to meet up with Jean-Paul Sartre. Located on Rue de Seine, it couldn’t possibly be more at the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près. Cheap and bohemian, open to artists and students, over the years, it has taken on a certain vintage feel of a place that has aged like fine wine. This setting has inspired gallery owner Olivier Robert, an expert in contemporary art and a design lover. With permission from Xavier Blanchot, the hotel’s owner, three years ago, he envisioned transforming each room into an exhibition space for designers or design producers during Paris Design Week. “It’s truly delightful for visitors to wander these rather illicit hallways”, he says. “The setting creates a feeling of intimacy with exhibitors. It’s a place full of stories and fantasies, a marvelous existentialist vessel, which doesn’t follow classic standards.” Olivier Robert loves organizing his shows like small happenings, a far cry from big exhibition halls and an event where human and artistic factors come before commercial considerations. He named his presentation “Bienvenue Design“ since he had also organized the Bienvenue Art Fair, for contemporary art. To select the participants, he has joined forces with Jean-François Declerc, a collector, gallery owner, and contemporary design specialist, as well as specialty journalist Marie Godfrain. The list is not yet definitive, so to apply, galleries, creative studios, and design producers are invited to submit their applications via the organization’s email address.*
Given the success of previous editions, Xavier Blanchot, who inherited this family-owned hotel from his father, will dedicate around thirty rooms to this event in 2023. Each time, designers’ passage here leaves footprints – some wallpaper here, a repainted wall there – adding a special touch to the stories already written within these walls. This year, designer Harry Nuriev has redecorated a room with a round bed and pink lighting. Wall coverings imitate aluminum reflections using pixels. Each year, there’s a big hullabaloo along the narrow corridors of this small building, which have been described as “psychedelic” by Quentin Tarantino, who loved imagining so many fascinating ghosts in his room and chose this place for its free spirit. 
 

*info@bienvenue.art