To celebrate the Midsummer and the long-awaited endless summer nights, The Community welcomes ten artists for our second exhibition in Pantin to take over The Community Centre and the neighbouring The Community Garden on rue Méhul 9 and 13.

In “Mystic May”, the artists, whose works linger between fantasy and realism, reinterpret the existing structures of the urban environment and replace them into these re-imagined settings with otherworldly characters. The works witness a search for alternative identities and spaces, a sketch for imaginary universes surrounded by magic. Suburban houses become alive and a gang of alley cats takes over rooftops; metamorphosed plants grow in the concrete garage boxes while sculptures become shelters for bucolic spirits and totem markers of the public space.

The conveying forces and energies of the natural world are expressed through careful details of material expression - 3D printing, bronze, clay, epoxy resin, and graffiti - the techniques and materials reflect a quest for sensuality, and a return for expressivity and romanticism, recalling the artist’s role as a refined craftsman.

The fantastical characters and architecture in the exhibition stimulate us towards a more sensitive and embodied relationship with the surrounding nature: the ensemble of works creates shelters and manifestations of collective imagination and communal care, questioning the liminal space of physical and imaginative boundaries. By exploring the moods of suburban and metropolitan realities, the artists bring forward the potential of this expanded space as a site for daydreaming, bringing forward a different psychology of space and time.

Please join us for the Mystic May celebration during the longest weekend of the year which is co-animated by old and new habitants of the Pantin woodland.