Ariana Papademetropoulos’s newest exhibition, titled “Glass Slipper,” is greater than a fairy story. At present on view via April 11 at Thaddaeus Ropac’s house in Paris, the present options work from two completely different sequence—one hyper-realistically depicts clothes in dry cleansing baggage, the opposite chairs floating in several landscapes—in addition to an set up consisting of a fish tank and mattress by which guests are invited to put on and don some headphones to take heed to a commissioned soundtrack. The artist wished to remodel the gallery right into a ritualized house, the place water, portals, and invisible forces create an immersive encounter. Beneath, Papademetropoulos describes how she conceived of the exhibition, her varied influences, and what she thinks retains artwork alive.
Ariana Papademetropoulos, The Mistress, 2026.
Photograph Nicolas Brasseur/©Ariana Papademetropoulos/Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Milan · Seoul
Thaddaeus Ropac’s Paris house seems a bit like a church, with excessive ceilings. I wished to construct the exhibition as a journey, letting the work information you thru it. I painted dry-cleaned clothes to greet you. (One costume I already had, the opposite I rented for the portray.) They’re devoid of figures, but you may really feel them. You may virtually hear them. There’s a thread operating all through the present of presence via absence. As you step into the nave-like gallery, a glass coffin occupies the middle, surrounded by giant canvases that emulate Roman trompe-l’œil. Chairs are directional; they present you the place you’re meant to sit down. The chairs in my work take the place of figures. Floating within the air, it’s inconceivable to inform whether or not they’re rising or descending. The identical ambiguity applies to the rainbow in Gravity’s Rainbow (2026). Is it springing out or delving into the water? Apparently, the primary portray I produced, Jupiter and Io (2026), concludes the present on the second flooring, whereas the final work I made, the aquarium, takes heart stage downstairs.
Ariana Papademetropoulos, Jupiter and Io, 2026.
Photograph Nicolas Brasseur/©Ariana Papademetropoulos/Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Milan · Seoul
I believe artwork is meant to make you meditate. That’s why we go to museums. With the aquarium, I assumed I may take it one other step additional. It’s crammed with 150 fresh-water kissing fish. They dominate one another via their kissing. I’m ready for them to start out, however thus far they preserve kissing the glass. They’re very cartoon-like, virtually unreal. I wanted for 1,000 of them, however was advised 150 was the restrict for this type of fish tank. I wished the viewer to be immersed, to really feel they might coexist with one other species. Air, one in all my favourite bands, requested me to do the artwork for his or her upcoming album. In return, I requested them to compose a three-minute monitor for the aquarium. I gave them many references, together with their very own work from the film Virgin Suicides, in addition to ambient ’70s soundtracks. The music is supposed to convey the sensation of going deeper into the ocean: beginning on the floor and descending because the monitor progresses. I really feel their music completes the work. Is it Snow White’s casket? The Pope’s coffin? I really like that folks have their very own interpretations. I constructed the aquarium as an final remedy system, impressed by Korean spa rituals. Guests turn into avatar variations of themselves, observers being noticed, immersed on this play on gaze. Ice, fog, steam—via water we cleanse, renew, and remodel.
Ariana Papademetropoulos, Water Based mostly Therapy, 2026.
Photograph Nicolas Brasseur/©Ariana Papademetropoulos/Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Milan · Seoul
The title of the present, “Glass Slipper,” references Cinderella. I like that it evokes a fairy story, nevertheless it’s additionally fairly violent. There’s a pressure in it—you’re protected, but that safety can break. The title carries these dualities. I considered the glass slipper as a type of vessel, echoing the theme of different vessels within the present: the microwave, the dry cleansing, and finally the aquarium. I curated the exhibition round an esoteric model of The Wizard of Oz. Frank Baum, who wrote the novel that the movie is predicated on, was a theosophist, and I really like the place Hollywood meets the brand new age—my work displays that. To me, The Wizard of Oz is the final word story, one of the best film ever made. Sure movies you see as a baby—in my case Jean Cocteau’s Magnificence and the Beast and Roger Vadim’s Barbarella—embed themselves in your thoughts. These tales keep alive and proceed to tell the creativeness.
Ariana Papademetropoulos, Psychic particular (mental property) 1, 2026.
Photograph Nicolas Brasseur/©Ariana Papademetropoulos/Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Milan · Seoul
The classic telephone cubicles on the second flooring are the one works I had already made earlier than this present. I assumed they might act as portals, very similar to my work. Every is framed by a shell, which might additionally function a portal to the ocean. It’s such a wonderful second if you carry the receiver and listen to the ocean. It connects all of us. For the recordings, I had been working with a medium in Los Angeles for six years, however we bumped into disputes over mental property. I then discovered one other unbelievable psychic, beneficial by artist Pol Taburet.
The psychic, Yaguel Didier, is 83 and really well-known in France. Her home is crammed with work by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. She has the warmest voice. I don’t communicate French, so somebody from the gallery translated her readings, permitting me to isolate three extracts for every telephone sales space. (These excerpts are much less about my private life.) Preserving her voice in French provides an invisible layer, a passing-through-language impact. Her visions—rose petals falling in a swirl, fish surrounding you, issues flying within the air—typically echoed my work. She didn’t know something about it, but her photos aligned completely with the exhibition.
Set up view of “Ariana Papademetropoulos: Glass Slipper,” 2026, at Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris.
Photograph Nicolas Brasseur/©Ariana Papademetropoulos/Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Milan · Seoul
A lot of my follow is an investigation into the invisible. I’m fascinated by the place the psychic subject meets the quantum subject, the place science meets magic. Something I don’t perceive makes me assume. I really like motion pictures with unknown endings—they keep alive. That’s why I really like David Lynch or the Mona Lisa: we don’t know why she’s smiling. Thriller retains artwork alive. The issues we are able to’t absolutely grasp at all times appear to tackle a lifetime of their very own. —As advised to Sarah Belmont
