Contemporary art exhibition at K.A.B

EXHIBITION FROM October 21 to November 15, 2026

A datura under the pillow
In situ installation by Louise-Margot Décombas

Curated and text by: la collective glitch (Zélia Bajaj & Chloé Bonannini)
Artistic direction: Nathalie Borowski - Hubert Rivey

Opening reception open to all on Wednesday, October 21 from 5 PM to 7 PM

Inside the Square des Batignolles, strange creatures have taken up residence in a greenhouse. Under this glass shelter, the works of Louise-Margot Décombas seem to watch over passersby discreetly, or perhaps they are spying on them, waiting for evening to begin moving.

Their presence transforms the Kiosk into a place of hybridization, on the edge of a bedroom, a garden, and a laboratory. At its center, organic and utilitarian forms merge, distort, and change colors to give rise to new entities. At dusk, the creatures awaken: the plants breathe or emit a glow, soft surfaces bristle with spikes, and objects change scale as if to assert their subjectivity. Faced with this fantasized nature, it is difficult to know if our mind is playing tricks on us or if we are dreaming with our eyes open. Can we trust this hybrid furniture to provide refuge, or must we remain on our guard?

The three sculptures by Louise-Margot Décombas blur our landmarks while forging a material and emotional relationship with the objects that surround us. From one work to another, the furniture becomes shelter, body, or organism, bringing unexpected forms of life to the surface behind customary uses. The works invite us to consider everyday objects as active and familiar presences, acting upon the space and other bodies. These entities seem less like they are inhabiting the greenhouse than developing their own world within it, one that is both intimate and autonomous.

Recalling a dream or a childhood memory, A datura under the pillow extends this dreamlike and strange atmosphere: a flower from the garden has slipped into the intimate space of the bedroom. The pillow, associated with sleep, memories, and reveries, suggests that moment when the boundaries between what is lived, imagined, and remembered become porous. A nocturnal and toxic flower, the datura is associated with hallucination and disturbance. Nicknamed "witches' weed," it also evokes empirical knowledge linked to plants, transmitted outside of institutional knowledge. Like the works in the exhibition, it brings to light, behind the ordinary, an unsuspected life, charged with affects and memories.

About:

Louise-Margot Décombas is a graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Paris and the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon. She lives in Paris and works at La Cyberrance in Romainville. In her artistic practice, she stages narratives that translate an attachment to everyday furniture and incorporate living spaces derived from both the intimate sphere and the public space. In her installations, which regularly mix sculpture and photography, she focuses on bringing out the affects and memories that permeate them. Her research focuses on the subversion of standardized habitats through individual appropriation, like residential neighborhoods, working-class towns, and seaside resorts, as well as on the obsolete yet ordinary forms of outdoor furniture.

With the support of the City of Paris and the Fondation des Artistes.