As part of the C’est pas du Luxe ! Festival
From September 25, 2026, to January 3, 2027
What brings a group together? What forms of collective life are invented outside established models?
For several months, artists Émilie Rousset, Louise Hémon, and Sarah Maeght worked alongside residents of supported housing facilities (pensions de famille). The meetings, writing workshops, recorded conversations, and time spent together nourished a shared body of research. Écho and Zéphyr were born out of this experience, driven by the conviction that the margins are not merely places of fragility, but also spaces of invention.
The project’s main lines of inquiry—forming a group, inhabiting a space, making one’s voice heard—become the organizing principle of the exhibition and shape the dialogue with works from the Collection Lambert.
The group was invited to participate in a selection process within the museum’s storerooms, linked to the narratives and themes addressed by Écho and Zéphyr. Choosing artworks becomes a fully embraced gesture: articulating a perspective, establishing connections, and accepting deviations. Rather than a simple showcase, the exhibition acts as an environment that expands upon these questions, stories, and imaginaries.
Echo
Text & Video Installation
Sarah Maeght et Emilie Rousset
During a guided tour of a supported housing facility led by its residents, voices overlap, move at their own paces, intersect, and forget to respond. Émilie Rousset and Sarah Maeght recorded hours of on-site conversations. The artists offer a transcription of these dialogues—a text that attempts to capture their flow. The timecodes make the rhythms and overlaps visible. The written word highlights details imperceptible when listening. Patterns and repetitions emerge. We read more than what is said; we see more than what is described.
In the exhibition space, fragments of these spoken words are isolated, enlarged, and rewritten. They offer a journey through the housing facilities as told by those who inhabit and describe them: a cat roaming from studio to studio, the soundproofing of the music room, a blanquette de veau, the careful attention paid to the schedule, the tending to plant cuttings… the memory of passing through, everyday habits and routines. Everything that forms a collective.
Zephyr
Video & Wind Machine Installation
Louise Hémon et Emilie Rousset
In a stone quarry—a raw, timeless space—silhouettes emerge, weathering a fierce wind. Artists Louise Hémon and Émilie Rousset present a multi-screen video installation exploring human bodies confronted with this invisible, untamable force. This mineral, almost abstract setting becomes the stage for a silent struggle between grounding and dispersion. Filmed as a collective, this chosen family sways, coming together just as it falls apart. The wind shapes their trajectories, while bodies hold each other or pull apart, revealing dynamics of unity and fracture. The silent film favors a visual and physical language where daylight sculpts the individuals, highlighting both their fragility and power.
The video installation at the Collection Lambert extends this immersive experience by making the sound of the wind tangible through wind machines—unusual objects traditionally used by film Foley artists. The collective featured on screen will activate these machines in a choreographed symphony, becoming the very engine of the movement and narrative.
Opening day, Friday, September 25:
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM: Screening and talk on the film Expert Esthétique by Pauline Bastard at the Collection Lambert
5:30 PM: Opening of the C’est pas du Luxe ! Festival – Place des Corps Saints, Avignon
6:30 PM: Exhibition opening (vernissage) of Écho and Zéphyr at the Collection Lambert The Collection Lambert is offering a free guided tour for families on Saturday 26 at 2:00 PM and Sunday 27 at 2:00 PM.
7:00 PM: Buffet catered by Mas de Carles and performance by the Collective
8:00 PM: Performance by the Collective
With the support of
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Émilie Rousset
Émilie Rousset is a French theater director and director of the CDNO – Centre Dramatique National d’Orléans. She draws on archives and documentary investigations to create plays, installations, and films. Her work has notably been presented at the Festival d’Automne à Paris, the Festival d’Avignon, the Centre Pompidou, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Théâtre National de la Colline, and the Collection Lambert. In collaboration with Louise Hémon, she created Le Grand Débat, Les Océanographes, La Mort, and the short film series Rituels. In 2025, she presented Affaires familiales at the Festival d’Avignon, followed in 2026 by Alouettes – pièce de champ, co-created with Caroline Barneaud. She is currently working with Sarah Maeght on Drag King – La Nuit des Rois, scheduled to premiere in 2028.
Sarah Maeght
Sarah Maeght is a novelist and playwright. Following C’est où, le Nord? in 2016 (Albin Michel), she published Les Imbattables in 2018 (JC Lattès) and Véda s’en va in 2025 (Albin Michel Jeunesse), a novel shortlisted for the 2026 Prix Vendredi. Her novels are published in paperback by Le Livre de Poche. Co-writer of the play Affaires familiales alongside Émilie Rousset, she is currently writing Drag King, la Nuit des Rois. She leads numerous writing workshops and has authored audio dramas performed by teenagers, as well as educational resources for l’École des loisirs and Le Livre de Poche. In 2027, she will be a resident at the Villa Swagatam in New Delhi. She is currently working on her fourth novel, supported by a grant from the Centre National du Livre (CNL).
Louise Hémon
Louise Hémon’s practice operates at the intersection of cinema, theater, and visual arts. Since 2015, she has directed acclaimed documentary films such as L’Homme le plus fort (Hot Docs Toronto) and Voyage de documentation de Madame Anita Conti (Visions du Réel, official selection for the César Awards). Her video art has been shown at the Centre Pompidou, Lafayette Anticipations, and the Fondation Hermès. Since 2018, in collaboration with Émilie Rousset, she has co-directed stage productions—Le Grand Débat, Les Océanographes, and La Mort—premiered at the Festival d’Automne à Paris. In 2025, she presented her debut feature narrative film, L’Engloutie, at the Directors’ Fortnight (Quinzaine des Cinéastes) at the Cannes Film Festival, which received the prestigious Prix Jean Vigo alongside numerous international awards.