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IN BRIEF
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At the Small gallery of the Thomas Henry Museum, a selection of original drawings and lithographs opens a sensitive itinerary through the Louis Vuitton Travel Book Collection. Echoing the 9th Art Biennale, this proposal reveals 22 works with mixed graphic techniques resonating with seven lithographs published by the Michael Woolworth workshop. Between real wandering and mental escape, the exhibition composes a poetic mapping of cities and countries, traversed or dreamed, and delivers all the markers to organize your visit: dates, hours, prices, and the spirit of the journey.
A Lively Chapter of the Louis Vuitton Travel Book Collection
Designed as an invitation to depart, the Louis Vuitton Travel Book Collection gathers perspectives from renowned artists and young talents on iconic or unexpected destinations. Each page functions like a long-term notebook where color, line, and material become means of transport. Here, the journey can be mobile or immobile: the itinerary passes through the pleasure of intellectual escape and the emotional resonance of a landscape, a facade, a face.
Works, Techniques, and Spatial Arrangement
The route brings together 22 original pieces created using various processes — inks, washes, pencil, collage — and confronts them with seven lithographs produced by the Michael Woolworth workshop. This organization highlights the flexibility of the printed image against the spontaneity of the drawn gesture. The scenography of the Small gallery encourages an intimate reading: formats, proximities, and hanging rhythms establish a flipping cadence, as if the visitor were browsing an open book about the world.
Real Itineraries and Imaginary Landscapes
Beyond geographical coordinates, “sketched journeys” compose atmospheres: port mists, diagonal avenues, musical clamor, silent archives. The visual narrative feeds on traces, sometimes documentary, sometimes fictional, that broaden the very notion of destination. In this spirit, a memorial journey to Washington illustrates how the city can be approached through memory and history, while a musical celebration in Nashville reminds us how the soundtrack of a place shapes our inner images. Cultural calendars, such as the eventful year of Pontivy Community in 2025, also resonate with travel diaries, just like societal contexts, exemplified by the tighter smoking restrictions in Japan as the Osaka Expo approaches. And because the desire to see often goes through nearby exhibitions, one’s perspective can sharpen with local initiatives such as the presentation of Mélina Carmé in Réquista, another stop on this grand artistic itinerary.
In Resonance with the 9th Art Biennale
This exhibition positions itself in counterpoint to the flagship proposal of the 9th Art Biennale, “Brecht Evens. The Lair of the Gorgon”, presented from June 21 to November 16. The dialogue amplifies the circulations between drawing, narration, and the architecture of the book. On one side, the graphic lushness of Brecht Evens; on the other, the geo-poetic flipping of the Travel Books. Together, they compose a traversal of the medium where the page, the board, and the lithograph find an overall coherence.
The heart of “Travel Sketches” beats to the rhythm of the live sketch and the meticulously printed plate. The lithographs from the Michael Woolworth workshop play with the happy accidents of stone and the vibrant flat colors, while the original drawings reveal the temporality of the gesture — hesitations, retractions, corrections. This back-and-forth materializes the experience of movement: a stratification of impressions where each layer contributes to memory.
A Visitor’s Notebook for Everyone
Accessible and educational, the route appeals to strollers as well as to graphic arts enthusiasts. The labels and the narrative thread allow following the evolution of the line, identifying techniques, and observing how an artist constructs a city in a few lines. To grasp this visual grammar, one only needs to embrace the diversity of viewpoints and let the images work the memory, like a travel notebook that darkens with each step.
Practical Information
Location: Thomas Henry Museum, Small gallery. Open from Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 12:30pm and from 2pm to 6pm; Saturday and Sunday from 1pm to 6pm. For Monday, inquire according to the period. Organizer: Thomas Henry Museum.
Entry fees: starting from €6 (full price). Adult groups (from 10 people): €4. Free for those under 26 and under conditions on presentation of proof.
