Champagne House Perrier-Jouet Holds Its Very First Museum Exhibition

Owner of the largest private collection of French Art Nouveau in Europe, has always been inextricably linked to art. Wishing to share its more than 200-year-old heritage with the widest possible audience, it now presents its first-ever museum exhibition, “A Banquet of Wonders, Delighting in the World”, at the Museum of Champagne Wine and Regional Archeology in Epernay in the Champagne region of France. On view through December 11, 2023, the exhibition curated by artist and design historian, Benjamin Loyauté, originated from discussions between the museum and the Perrier-Jouët team, who wished to give access to key pieces of its Art Nouveau collection, some of which are shown for the first time to the public.

For Loyauté, creating this exhibition was a way of bringing together the past, the present and the future. Banquet room of the exhibition “A Banquet of Wonders, Delighting in the World” at the Museum of There were several key principles that guided us through the whole process actually. Firstly, sharing and transmitting: the collection as both a material and symbolic heritage and as a living legacy; the banquet as a place for sharing.

Secondly, to assert and engage oneself: the collection as a means to converse and to manifest oneself to the world. Thirdly, to savor, celebrate and enchant the world: the collection with the banquet as a ceremonial object, a vector of sharing to celebrate the living and to marvel. The book tells us about a world made up of creations, oceans, sun, animals.

The word “wonders” has several meanings and I like the idea of an eighth wonder, which would be our way of seeing the world, of tasting it and of interacting with it to glimpse a world collaborating more and more with nature. The nature-culture relationship is very present in the exhibition. There is the natural wonderful and the cultural wonderful.

The exhibition unveils contemporary design prowess. The talking objects (wonders of words) and engaged objects invented by Émile Gallé tell us about the world, and commensality as an object of discovery allows us to see the banquet as a place of words and commitment to make the world. Treasures from Perrier-Jouët’s world-renowned Art Nouveau collection It is the place of possibilities, of experiences, of fantasy, of sharing, of words, a land of endless exploration.

It must also be a manifesto composed of authenticity and discernment, as it must summon the marvelous and its theatricality. The possible dialog between works that are esthetic, literary and even philosophical or sociological. The precision of the choices is made in relation to the chaptering of the exhibition, which I wanted as a book, a fable, a tale.

A 17 -century ear work placed in relation to a 1900 biomorphic work reminds us that nothing is old because everything is created at a contemporary moment in history. I work on researching the most beautiful Art Nouveau glass in the world, and the Perrier-Jouët glass collection is important. I have focused on seeking wine and champagne glasses for a few years.

The drinking glass allows us to revisit science, technology, the era and the beauty of the links between science, know-how and the art of wine. Like napkins, glasses speak and become world objects, word objects, they tell us how to taste the world. Perrier-Jouët’s important wine glass collection A few of my favorites are the glass collection of Perrier-Jouët, Karl Koepping, the little radish-shaped cup of the birth of Venus, the knife from the Louvre and the dragonfly table by Émile Gallé from the Perrier-Jouët collection.

My favorites are also all the contemporary designers who are looking for new formal and practical applications around objects and tableware. I remain on the idea that history teaches us that the creator wishes to sublimate nature or represent it and that today it is man collaborating with nature. I am thinking of Gavin Munro whose creations are not without complexity, just as Marcin Rusak unwittingly takes us back to the world of Jean-Jacques Grandville’s from the mid-19th century.

The idea came from a joint reflection with the scenographers on the dynamics of the banquet, on the principles of the movement, of the heritage which is transmitted, reflections also around the future of materials in the art of the table and dining. Here the symbol of infinity because for me, the past was the present and the future is taking shape in the present. It is also a form of freedom to make the table a space of reflection on the future by combining ancient and contemporary works oriented toward biodesign.

It is the nature-culture interaction that must be put at the center of this dynamic form. To me, this was also inspired by Surrealist dinners and balls, but also and above all by the fascinating table plans, which few know of, by Joseph Gillier. They represent tables with tablecloths that form like gardens.

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