In German, the word “Extrazimmer” refers to a “spare” room, with no specific pre-defined use: what British author Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) referred to as “a room of one’s own”, an extension and a space of experimentation. In short, a space where everything is possible. And it is indeed this notion that lies at the heart of Joël Riff’s project for La Verrière: a broadened focus that lends itself to encounters and events that could not happen elsewhere.

The exhibition “Extrazimmer” plays host to the work of Caroline Achaintre, who draws on craft techniques to create forms influenced by a multiplicity of sources, from non-Western art to urban culture and from German Expressionism to postmodern design. At La Verrière, she presents a series of recent tapestries – most of which have been created specifically for this exhibition – that centres on a monumental work that has been shown publicly only once before. This tapestry here enters into a rich dialogue with other works by Achaintre created using the same technique, namely the hand-tufting of wool. Its oversized format (350 x 440 cm) and its prominent motifs endow it with a subtly unsettling presence that is underscored by its title, Gobbler, in a contrast with the downy softness of the wool. The colours and forms of the other tapestries hung alongside it portray what Joël Riff describes as “hybrid anthropomorphic creatures that blend a carnival spirit with science fiction.”