8 Flags: the game of the rose and the square
As part of the exhibition "Victor Brauner, The Magical Adventure", the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (NMNM) invited Karina Bisch and Nicolas Chardon (CONNOISSEURS) to form a "family" of their own and, in turn, bring together eight artists to reinterpret the famous Jeu de Marseille, a variant of the traditional 54-card pack devised by the Surrealists who had taken refuge at Villa Air-Bel in Marseille in March 1941.
Taking over from André Breton and the eight painters then in exile (Victor Brauner, Frédéric Delanglade, Óscar Domínguez, Max Ernst, Jacques Hérold, Wifredo Lam, Jacqueline Lamba and André Masson) are Karina Bisch and Nicolas Chardon, Corentin Canesson, Fabien Gharbi, Niels Hung, Nicolas Jasmin, Anne Neukamp, Camila Oliveira Fairclough, Lili Reynaud Dewar and Anne Laure Sacriste. In the manner of an exquisite corpse, images of these artists' works were combined to create new figures and the design for the back of the cards, which have now been transformed into flags.
"As artists, publishers, collectors, curators and exhibition organisers, we have given shape to the eight flags for Villa Paloma through the prism of these intertwined activities, with the winds of Monaco tirelessly reshuffling the cards of an open-ended game, celebrating passion as much as reason, the square and the rose.
"Between these two figures, at once symbols and motifs, the faces of a new heraldry now flutter. Will we read the image of painting yet to come in this giant, supple tarot?
"From Lili's red, dancing body to Fabien's revealing yet ever-enigmatic Balise, the full depth of our gazes, our exchanges and our relationships comes into play. Nicolas becomes a strategist, while Anne and Camila sing the praises of the economy of the sign. Anne Laure extols the double and Corentin the fall. What a beautiful and amusing display of flags. Will we remember it? Don't Forget, Niels paints, by heart!" KBNC, Paris, 12 May 2026
