Scenography of the exhibition by Adrianna Wallis at the Musée des Archives Nationales, Paris, from September 4 to January 24, 2021

Adrianna Wallis wondered about the fate of letters that cannot reach their addressees because of addressing errors on the envelopes. Starting as an investigation, this project led her to Libourne, to a dedicated center of the French Post Office where employees open the letters in search of clues to find the sender or the recipient. Sometimes they fail, and it is in these lost letters of unknown authors and anonymous that the artist immersed herself. She discovered a literary, psychological and sentimental material, the backstage of our social and intimate world. The exhibition brings together in the historical spaces of the Hôtel de Soubise some letters skilfully chosen and catalogued by the artist, two films in which some of these texts are finally read and addressed, and other works.
All these objects are presented on a midnight blue background, the color of ink, and are inserted into the interstices of the existing architecture. In the large oval room that precedes the exhibition, a large platform, hollowed out in its center, forms an atoll where volunteer readers take turns to read these forgotten letters.

Curator: Gaël Charbau
Photographs : Maxime Verret
Link to the website of Adrianna Wallis