For the Vitrines sur l’Art event organized by Galeries Lafayette, Gonçalo Sena has created a modular setting, disrupting the Haussmann storefront window (characterized by its parquet and mouldings) by placing a folding screen of raw concrete in this context. Playing on the contrast between materials and the dichotomy between inside and outside, domestic and public space, the piece condenses references such as Berlin’s modernist architecture, architect and designer Eileen Gray, or the painter Blinky Palermo. The reverse of the screen is covered with a bright colour, and only its potential reflection on the white wall allows us to glimpse its existence. The work marks out a space where matter and illusion become together, where different fields of creation cross paths, renewing the idea of the storefront window.

Gonçalo Sena explores architectural and sculptural universes through objects, drawings and installations. It is through his experience with materials, mediums and processes that he develops structural elements as metaphors. Playing with opposites, Gonçalo Sena creates space-times, boundary-marked areas intended for a dip into immersion, bringing visitors into a parallel universe. His works, created from simple materials – concrete, wood, and paper, among others – are all expressions of a minimal language, at the base of elliptical narratives giving free rein to the viewer’s imagination. 

Gonçalo Sena was born in 1984 in Cascais, Portugal. He lives and works in Lisbon and Berlin.
He is a 2012-2013 artist-in-residence at the Pavillon Neuflize OBC.

Getting there
Galeries Lafayette Haussmann’s storefront windows
40 boulevard Haussmann – 75009 Paris