Data / Ora
Date(s) - 20/11/2025 - 17/01/2026
11:00 am - 7:00 pm
Luogo
Galerie Alberta Pane
Categorie
Galerie Alberta Pane is pleased to present Elle Chabal across its two Parisian spaces, marking the first solo gallery exhibition of French artist Marielle Chabal. In this ambitious new project, the artist transforms the gallery spaces by fully recreating a retail shop as an immersive in situ installation. Within this setting, Chabal unveils a new series of ceramic works that resonate with QUEENS, a film currently in production exploring the enduring traces of patriarchy in our relationships to feminist-queer identity.
The exhibition features forty-two pairs of high-heeled shoes, along with bags and accessories, all crafted in ceramic and varying in size, color, and style, forming the autumn-winter collection of the Elle Chabal label. Displayed on shelves, pedestals, and in vitrines, the works adopt the visual language of a real boutique. The exhibition’s title extends this concept by transforming the artist’s full name into a fictional brand. By presenting only high-heeled shoes that are uncomfortable to wear, designed to increase height and accentuate the leg, Chabal interrogates the social construction of femininity shaped by the patriarchal gaze and the accompanying pain. The familiar injunction, “you must suffer to be beautiful”, is materialized here in objects that are impossible to wear—not only because of their stoneware material but also due to their exaggerated proportions. These amplified dimensions evoke a queer aesthetic, further emphasized by the addition of jewelry and fur on select pieces. The artist also challenges the notion of “becoming a woman,” understood as a socially imposed construct entailing constraints and discomfort. In this framework, femininity emerges as an imposed role, often synonymous with suffering.
The dense accumulation of shoes within the recreated boutique also reflects the limitless consumption intrinsic to capitalist systems. Chabal critiques compulsive buying, the relentless turnover of collections, and the devaluation of durability. In response, she embraces a practice grounded in slowness, the memory of gesture, and material longevity. Drawing inspiration from traditional shoemaking and luxury leather craftsmanship, Chabal adapts these techniques to clay, finishing her works with durable glazes. This approach elevates her sculptures to the status of enduring relics, resisting the planned obsolescence of fashion products.
Marielle Chabal’s projects unfold over time, developing in stages. In 2024, the gallery presented fragments of the first phase of QUEENS; the current exhibition, Elle Chabal, corresponds to its production phase. The show assembles sculptures that examine mechanisms of female oppression while fostering dialogue around these issues. Through this series of ceramics, Chabal explores societal pressures on femininity, consumerist excess, and forms of resistance to structures of domination.
NO COMMENT