A new voice in the Paris contemporary art scene, The Living Archives has quickly established itself as a singular and inspiring curatorial initiative. Founded by Meng-Fei Liu, curator and researcher, the project proposes an approach that goes beyond the usual codes of the gallery or the art center. Here, every exhibition is conceived as a narrative experience, weaving together collective memory, intimate perception, and poetic resonance.
A unique curatorial project in Paris
Unlike traditional art spaces, The Living Archives does not define itself as a gallery. Its ambition lies elsewhere: to transform the exhibition into a story, a text to be read with the eyes and felt through the body.
Under the vision of Meng-Fei Liu, trained in French literature and 19th-century art, scenography becomes an inner stage. Works embody presences, silences, and tensions, resonating deeply with the viewer.
This approach, at the crossroads of contemporary curation, writing, and sensibility, asserts itself as a radical and poetic voice within the Parisian art landscape.
MAXIM: Crossroads of worlds – the first exhibition
The first exhibition of The Living Archives, MAXIM : Crossroads of Worlds, takes inspiration from Feydeau’s play La Dame de chez Maxim. Rather than a literal reinterpretation, it explores the in-betweens: troubled identities, the fertile error, and the ambiguity of gazes.
Two artists engage in dialogue throughout the exhibition :
- Francesca Quey, an intuitive painter whose fragmented abstraction questions perception.
- Wen Lin Wang, a Taiwanese artist who combines collage, engraving, and painting in a reflection on memory, exile, and the materiality of language.
The exhibition resists the spectacular. It unfolds like a whisper. Each artwork is a suspended enigma; each room, a pause of resonance. The viewer is invited to linger, drift, and embrace uncertainty, discovering truth within fragility.
A new voice in contemporary art
With The Living Archives, Meng-Fei Liu proposes an audacious alternative to mainstream curatorial practices—one rooted in listening, resonance, and care. In a time when many exhibitions are saturated with spectacle and formatted messaging, this project brings a rare, demanding freshness.
By embracing subtlety and fragility as strengths, The Living Archives reminds us that art is not only about visibility or discourse, but can also be born from a breath, a silence, or a tremor—where sometimes, in almost nothing, everything is contained.
Pour lire la suite, téléchargez ART MAG N°27