Until 25 July, Villa D presents Leur mémoire a des rumeurs, an exhibition by Yoan Sorin and Flora Moscovici, curated by Frédéric Emprou. Bringing together painting, sculpture, furniture and colour, the exhibition unfolds as an immersive journey through memory and space. Through a dialogue between materials, architecture and artistic intervention, it explores how places preserve traces of the past and how personal and collective memories shape our perception of them. A contemplative and sensory experience that invites visitors to slow down and rediscover the spaces they inhabit.
As part of the 2026 edition of Nuit Blanche, whose theme was Love, Yoan Sorin presented Declaring His Flame at Villa D. Following the exhibition, the artist invited visitors into a performance in which the exhibition itself became a mutable composition. Rearranging its volumes, colours and surfaces, Sorin transformed the display into a painting in motion. The action began with an awkward figure timidly offering visitors small cards printed with the sole of his shoe, suggesting that the most meaningful declarations often emerge through fragile and improvised gestures. Accompanied by a slowed-down version of Haddaway’s What Is Love, the performance gradually shifted as two pigeons carrying a message redirected the narrative from romantic confession towards questions of politics, tolerance and resistance.
Throughout the performance, Sorin continuously adopted different roles—craftsman, painter, master of ceremonies and keeper of a fragile ritual. Using oversized matchsticks, he progressively inscribed the words WE ARE THE FIRE, expanding the notion of a declaration beyond the intimate to encompass collective struggle, solidarity and the possibility of social transformation.
Characteristic of his practice, the work unfolded through slowness, improvisation and deliberate anti-climax, extending the exhibition into a performative space where painting, language and the body became vehicles for both poetic ambiguity and political imagination. The French title, Déclarer sa flamme, retained its playful double meaning, oscillating between declaring one’s love (flamme) and one’s idleness (flemme), while affirming that, like a match, every declaration carries the potential to ignite.
