LES RHYTHM EXHIBITION
[space] Les Rhythm Exhibition
Concept
Exhibition Design
Paris, France
2023
Concept
Exhibition Design
Paris, France
2023
DESCRIPTION
Les Rhythm is an immersive installation that explores how movement shapes culture, identity, and the spaces we inhabit. Inspired by the philosophies of four designers—Grace Wales Bonner, Garance Vallée Pellegrino, Phoebe English, and Emily Adams Bode Aujla—the project translates their approaches to rhythm, form, material, and emotion into spatial experiences.
Across four environments, movement becomes architectural: rising and falling paths, suspended textiles, spinning forms, sound, and layered pleats invite visitors to navigate rhythm, floating, cyclical change, and stillness through their own bodies. By blending static structure with elements that shift, sway, or thread together, Les Rhythm shifts how we perceive and engage with space—encouraging a fluid relationship between body, material, and environment.
This project is deeply personal, rooted in my experience of moving 29 times throughout my life. Les Rhythm reflects the constant interplay between transition and grounding, and the ways physical environments shape who we become. Through this installation, movement becomes both a physical encounter and an emotional narrative—an exploration of rhythm, reaction, and belonging.
Les Rhythm is an immersive installation that explores how movement shapes culture, identity, and the spaces we inhabit. Inspired by the philosophies of four designers—Grace Wales Bonner, Garance Vallée Pellegrino, Phoebe English, and Emily Adams Bode Aujla—the project translates their approaches to rhythm, form, material, and emotion into spatial experiences.
Across four environments, movement becomes architectural: rising and falling paths, suspended textiles, spinning forms, sound, and layered pleats invite visitors to navigate rhythm, floating, cyclical change, and stillness through their own bodies. By blending static structure with elements that shift, sway, or thread together, Les Rhythm shifts how we perceive and engage with space—encouraging a fluid relationship between body, material, and environment.
This project is deeply personal, rooted in my experience of moving 29 times throughout my life. Les Rhythm reflects the constant interplay between transition and grounding, and the ways physical environments shape who we become. Through this installation, movement becomes both a physical encounter and an emotional narrative—an exploration of rhythm, reaction, and belonging.
THE CONCEPT
Movement through the installation unfolds across four themes: rhythm and culture, the relationship between body and space, cyclical growth and death, and the stillness of home. Each environment interprets one of these ideas, guiding visitors through shifting forms, materials, and emotional states.
Movement through the installation unfolds across four themes: rhythm and culture, the relationship between body and space, cyclical growth and death, and the stillness of home. Each environment interprets one of these ideas, guiding visitors through shifting forms, materials, and emotional states.
CONCEPT SKETCHES
Early exploratory sketches for four movement-based installations, each inspired by a different designer and principle. These studies experimented with deconstructivism, dance, and shifting spatial rhythms to test how movement could structure the experience.
THE SITE
Set within Le Marais in Paris, the Hôtel de Sully’s courtyard becomes the foundation of the installation. Each of the four installations grow from one of the garden footprints, translating the site’s historic geometry into four movements that come together as one.
GRACE WALES BONNER: The Movement of Rhythm & Sound
As you enter and step onto the raised, textile-draped path, circular beats hang like musical notes, each carrying a small cymbal. As you walk, the wind, your steps, and the shift of your weight on the platform set the cymbals into motion. The space begins to sing, creating a rhythm that moves with you. Two live dancers activate the environment further, shaping the connection between the moving body, sound, and our relationship to one another. A wired structure frames the space, with a light textile element draped below, linking this environment to the installations beyond.
This installation reflects Grace Wales Bonner’s approach to design, where music, movement, and cultural expression are closely intertwined. Her work often blends ritual, craft, materiality, and the rhythm of everyday life, and this space echoes that sensibility by using sound and shared presence to create a living rhythm.
GARANCE VALLEÉ PELLEGRINO: Relationship Beween Body & Spaces
As you move into this environment, the path begins to rise and fall beneath you, guiding your body through soft shifts in elevation. Curved forms sweep around and above, creating a large-scale pleat you can walk within. The space feels like it’s floating, shaping the way you move while responding to your movement in return. Live dancers weave through the forms, expanding the sense of motion and blurring the line between body and architecture.
This installation reflects Garance Vallée Pellegrino’s practice, where organic shapes, rhythm, and sculptural form create a dialogue between the human body and the spaces it inhabits. Her work often plays with balance, fluidity, and the sensation of being held or guided by form, and this environment translates those ideas into an experience you physically move through.
THE CENTER SPACE
This space works as an intermission. Set at the heart of the installation and the heart of Paris, it offers a moment to breathe while still being surrounded by movement. The open structure frames the sky and the historic architecture around it, creating a brief pause before continuing into the next two environments. It lets the rhythm slow for a moment so the movement that follows lands with more clarity.
PHOEBE ENGLISH: Cyclical–Growth & Death
This space moves through the quiet rhythm of growth and decay. Spun wool structures gather in shifting clusters, paired with renewed textiles and natural materials that speak to her focus on repair, slowness, and hand-made process. The planting begins as living flowers, later becomes a cut-flower installation, and eventually dries over the course of the exhibition. Depending on when you arrive, the work sits at a different moment in its life cycle. Scent threads through the air, tying the body to nature and time and inviting you to move at the pace of change itself.
This installation echoes Phoebe English’s commitment to circularity, material responsibility, and forms that shift through deconstructive movement. Her practice is rooted in process, honesty, and a deep awareness of waste, and those values shape the environment through its organic materials, changing states, and visible passage of time.
EMILY ADAMS BODE AUJLA: The Movement of Home & Stillness
The 'home' draws from Bode’s language of memory, care, and domestic ritual. Warm wood, transparent walls, renewed textiles, and soft seating create a place that feels familiar, almost like stepping into a living room carried outdoors. Patchwork references her archival approach and the act of preserving what already exists. Part home, part atelier, part bar, part store—visitors are invited to gather, sit, and slow down, letting the room hold them in a moment of stillness before reentering movement.
This installation reflects Emily Adams Bode Aujla’s commitment to storytelling through material and craft. Her work often centers on home, inheritance, and the emotional weight of objects, and this environment carries that forward through transparency, warmth, and a sense of grounding. It offers a quiet end to the exhibition, shaped by the same intimacy and intention that define her design practice.
The 'home' draws from Bode’s language of memory, care, and domestic ritual. Warm wood, transparent walls, renewed textiles, and soft seating create a place that feels familiar, almost like stepping into a living room carried outdoors. Patchwork references her archival approach and the act of preserving what already exists. Part home, part atelier, part bar, part store—visitors are invited to gather, sit, and slow down, letting the room hold them in a moment of stillness before reentering movement.
This installation reflects Emily Adams Bode Aujla’s commitment to storytelling through material and craft. Her work often centers on home, inheritance, and the emotional weight of objects, and this environment carries that forward through transparency, warmth, and a sense of grounding. It offers a quiet end to the exhibition, shaped by the same intimacy and intention that define her design practice.
INFLUENCES & CASE STUDIES
A study of the references that informed the project’s design language—drawing from fashion, performance, sculpture, and architectural installation. These influences shaped the project’s materiality, forms, and spatial behaviors, becoming the spark that set everything in motion.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Mapping the project’s conceptual language through movement studies, textile behavior, deconstructivist form, and spatial experimentation. These visual explorations shaped the four movement principles that drive the final installation.