Hermés Paris ‘Wanderland’ Exhibition in Dubai

Saturday 6th February 2016

An ode to being transported to turn of the century Paris…

Hermès has sent its glorious exhibition ‘Wanderland’ to Dubai for a month, allowing those of us here stuck in the desert to experience the almost surreal, dream-like imagery of its Artistic Director, Pierre-Alexis Dumas. The principle behind the exhibition’s curation draws from the quintessentially French art of urban wandering, flâneurie. Indeed the figure of the flâneur—the stroller, the passionate wanderer emblematic of nineteenth-century French literary culture—is central to this exhibition.

This is a gloriously collection curated by Bruno Gaudichon, of not only elegant Hermés pieces – vintage and modern – but also installations, sounds, leather, metal, fine china and a recreation of a timeless life in Paris. Through many mysterious doorways I, the flâneur, was lead to strange and beautiful streetscapes, salons-de-thè and Parisian drawing rooms. Worlds of collusion and improbable encounters lay behind each door.

What I have discovered by taking part of this journey, is that the flâneur removes herself from the world while she stands astride its heart. This idea is an essential part of our paradigms of modernism and urbanism. The flâneur is an amateur detective and investigator of the city establishment.

Today marks the final day of the exhibition. Farewell Hermés; Dubai probably did not know what to make of you such is your quirky free spirit, though will miss your undeniable aesthetic. Your next stop? Shanghai, should any world flâneur care to stop by and be awed by a very Parisian art of display, like this one was.

‘Elephant in a China Shop’ as part of the elegant ‘The Passage’ row of retail shopfronts in the Hermés exhibition