BIENVENUE À DELFUNLAND | DELPHINE DÉNÉRÉAZ

Bienvenue à Delfunland is a complex and multifaceted installation by artist Delphine Dénéréaz, an architectural reconstruction of a villa in a utopian pink dimension.
It is a place of serenity and pleasure with a disquieting note, where potentially toxic plants and fountains spouting healing waters invite you to step into a playful, secular temple dedicated to love. Every non-structural element is crafted by the artist using an ancient weaving technique from the Middle Ages called ‘lirette,’ which Dénéréaz reinterprets with a modern sensibility. Everything originates from salvaged scrap materials and discarded fabrics, which Dénéréaz recycles into refined tapestries with a highly personal aesthetic.
Every motif, every design, every figure is born from memories, places, and people—each element tied to her daily life, her experiences, or her recollections.

Delfunland represents the culmination of this practice, where it is not just individual elements but the entire environment that contributes to the realization of a dream. It is as if a modern Alice, straddling the fairytale and the magical, confronts the toxicity of an untamed, uncontrolled environment. Yet an awakened and curious sensibility, drawn to dark and mysterious details, guides us, pulling us into an architecture that nods to contemporary aesthetics while remaining rooted in classic and ornamental motifs. Delphinium and its French variant Dauphinelle are named by the botanist Dioscorides because the shape of the bud resembles the beak of a dolphin.
And through the ambiguity of the (artist’s) name and the linguistic and symbolic associations, Delfunland constructs a crystallized environment, potentially toxic, yet alluring, like memories veiled by the passage of time or dust. These memories are presented to us as real, physical, and tangible in their shapes and textures.
The time experienced at Delfunland is fractured, syncopated, a tangible and layered back forward, where reflection—whether real or metaphorical—becomes a universal experience.

Delphine Dénéréaz
Gran Delfini Hotel, 2023
Weaving, plastic grid, textiles leftovers
Part of the installation “Bienvenue à Delfunland” at la Collection Lambert, Avignon
Courtesy the artist

Delphine Dénéréaz, Gran Delfini Hotel, 2023.
Installation view at “Bienvenue à Delfunland”, Collection Lambert, Avignon.
Courtesy the artist.

02/11/24