How can we rethink the banks of the Seine - their shapes, their uses - as the threshold to the Other World?
With The threshold of the Other world, Isabelle Daëron continues her research into water and Celtic mythology.
In Ivry-sur-Seine, bordering the city, the river is kept at a distance, as if to protect its inhabitants from flooding or to prioritize logistics and river trade since the 19th century. More than 2,000 years ago, its banks were the site of an encounter with its guardian goddess: Sequana. In Celtic mythology, they were synonymous with gateways to the Otherworld, the world of omniscience.
Through an exploration of the mythological dimension of the Seine and contemporary uses of its banks in Ivry, The threshold of the Other world develops research on the notion of thresholds, embodied through drawings, installations, and objects.
The exhibition, comprising two rooms, invites visitors on a journey that will take them to the banks of the Seine, where they will experience a revolution by observing from the water, gaining access to the Other World.
The first room offers a panoramic view of the riverbanks in Ivry and invites visitors to activate the Sequana sluice.
Sequana sluice invites you to experience a passage to the Other World. In Celtic mythology, the Other World is the world of divinities and omniscience. Only certain creatures have access to it, those capable of crossing two environments, like the duck, between the aquatic and aerial environments, or the salmon, between fresh and salt water. On either side, drawings evoke what the river has known for millennia. The spatial device is activated by an opening handwheel.
The second room invites visitors to step onto the banks of the Sequana. This space features objects and devices that embody the concept of thresholds. Each one has the unique ability to combine practical and symbolic value: railings, a fountain, a flood gauge, water wheels, and a wildlife ladder.
The flood scale is a reminder of our ambivalent relationship with the river. It shows the main flood dates and announces the possibility of an impending flood.
The fountain of knowledge installation gives form to one of the sites of Celtic mythology: the Fountain of Knowledge. This is a freshwater fountain at the bottom of the water, bordered by oak and hazelnut trees whose fruit - hazelnuts, acorns - feeds salmon, another creature with access to the other world.
September 27, 2025 -> December 13, 2025
Exhibition at the Fernand Léger Gallery/City of Ivry-sur-Seine, 93 avenue Georges Gosnat, 94200 Ivry-sur-Seine,
produced with the support of SADEV.
Thanks to Nina Capron, Chad Garçon, Pauline Avrillon, and the entire team at the Fernand Léger Gallery.
Photo credits: Fernand Léger Gallery / Jean-Michel Albert
Exhibition at the Fernand Léger Gallery/City of Ivry-sur-Seine, 93 avenue Georges Gosnat, 94200 Ivry-sur-Seine,
produced with the support of SADEV.
Thanks to Nina Capron, Chad Garçon, Pauline Avrillon, and the entire team at the Fernand Léger Gallery.
Photo credits: Fernand Léger Gallery / Jean-Michel Albert