F. P JOURNE, PARTNER OF THE INAUGURAL EDITION
OF MAZE DESIGN BASEL

F.P.Journe was a partner of the first edition of MAZE Design Basel, held on 16 and 17 June 2025 at the Offene Kirche Elisabethen in Basel. Located opposite the renowned Kunsthalle, this new fair brought together some of the most discerning galleries from the international decorative arts scene under one vaulted roof.
The organisers of the MAZE fairs, also behind Art Gstaad, chose this occasion to present a curated selection of design icons, ranging from emblematic pieces of the 1950s to contemporary creations. From Thomas Fritsch - Artrium (Paris) to Thomsen Gallery (New York), including Galerie Gastou (Paris), Pierre-Marie Giraud (Brussels), and Kreo (Paris), each exhibitor showcased a meticulous selection reflecting current trends and sensibilities.

Visitors were able to discover standout works, such as the “Fauteuil Coque” in hammered brass by Philippe Hiquily (Galerie Gastou), the fluid-lined “Table All Aperto” by Pierre Charpin (Galerie Kreo), clad in Bisazza mosaic, or the “Easylight” lamp by Philippe Starck (Ketabi Bourdet), a minimalist neon tube with an industrial silhouette, typical of his early experiments.

The venue itself, the Offene Kirche Elisabethen, a neo-Gothic 19th-century church designed by Zurich architect Ferdinand Stadler, provided an original setting, blending architectural heritage with modern expression.

True to its core values, Authenticity, Rarity, Talent (A.R.T.), the Manufacture F.P.Journe, through its partnership with MAZE Design Basel, reaffirms its long-standing commitment to supporting the arts in all their forms.

Installation view above and below, ‘Ed Clark. Paint is the Subject’ at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse, 13 June –13 September 2025. ©The Estate of Ed Clark. Courtesy the Estate and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Jon Etter.

Opening during Zurich Art Weekend 2025, Hauser & Wirth's Limmatstrasse location will present a showcase of selected masterpieces from the oeuvre of American artists Pat Steir and Ed Clark. ​Titled ‘Ed Clark. Paint is the Subject,’ this is the first solo exhibition in Switzerland dedicated to Clark, who is regarded as a pioneering American abstractionist. This impressive show brings together abstractionists' masterpieces spanning seven decades, and provides a rare opportunity to experience the full scope of Clark’s work, placing him in relation to diverse histories of abstraction.

Several works by Clark are also currently on view in Paris as part of the exhibition ‘Paris Noir: Artistic circulations and anti-colonial resistance, 1950–2000’ at the Centre Pompidou (19 March–30 June 2025). His inclusion highlights the important African American diaspora working in Paris and the long-standing influence of Europe on his practice, situating his work within broader transatlantic narratives. However the Zurich exhibition provides a rare opportunity to experience the full scope of Clark’s practice, placing him in relation to diverse histories of abstraction and highlighting the enduring relevance of his work. 
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The highlights of the show are Clark's dynamic large-scale paintings and works on paper, as well as early works and an example of his use of the shaped canvas. Archival images and records accompany the exhibition, charting the development of his avant-garde style and enduring influence on modern painting. A member of the New York School, Ed Clark contributed towards redefining abstraction in the 1950s with two characteristic features—the deployment of the shaped canvas and his unconventional use of a household broom to create sweeping, gestural compositions—the show’s title coming from a quote by the artist indicating the centrality of his medium to his work. Stylistically, his work bridges the physicality and spontaneity of Abstract Expressionism with the structured clarity of hard-edged abstraction, cementing his significance in postwar painting.


By Nermin and Tatsian, this is developing article.

Acclaimed Indian designer, Vikram Goyal, just announced his latest curation: Wrapped in History – 100 Blankets for 100 Elephants - the final exhibition and striking finale to The Great Elephant Migration, a 5,000-mile public art journey across the U.S. This exhibition will open in Los Angeles on June 27, 2025.

Curated in partnership with Vogue US and contributing editor Dodie Kazanjian, Vikram Goyal brings together internationally acclaimed fashion designers including Diane von Furstenberg, Sabyasachi, and Tarun Tahiliani, alongside Indigenous artisans, to create 100 ceremonial blankets. Each blanket draws on rich textile traditions and contemporary design, honoring the cultural significance of elephants and the spirit of human-wildlife coexistence.

“The vision of 100 hand-made Indian elephants migrating across America in my mind, is a monumental,
cinematic and moving work of performance art. Each elephant is a sculpture of a real elephant with
its own name that coexists with the Indigenous communities in the Nilgiri Hills of Southern India. I see
these elephant sculptures descending from the superb 16th to 18th Century Royal elephant portrait
paintings, where every elephant had its own name.”

- Dodie Kazanjian,
Curator, The Great Elephant Migration,
Vogue US
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ELEPHANTS ARE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLEThe creators of the herd live in the Nilgiri Hills, Southern India, where humans and elephants coexist in the densest overlap on the planet. The indigenous communities here see everything in nature as being alive and having a soul. The wind has a spirit, whispering secrets to the trees as she moves through. The stars, rocks, rivers, trees, plants and animals are all part of a big family. 
This way of looking at the world is rooted in mutual respect and reciprocity. There's a reverence for nature and all its inhabitants and a belief that the earth will look after us if we are respectful towards the earth and all of its inhabitants. Humans are a part of a larger web of life, where everything is interconnected. When we harm the earth or other beings we harm ourselves. If we behave respectfully towards the elephants, they are expected to behave well in return. This way of looking at the world is key to everyone’s survival and successful coexistence between all living beings.

At Marseille’s [mac], the Lebanese artist stages a poetic confrontation between past and present, myth and memoryAli Cherri, Lucie, 2023. Glass ocular prosthetics, wood, brass, epoxy putty, plaster © Ali Cherri Studio. Private collection. Courtesy of the artist.The [mac] Museum of Contemporary Art in Marseille presents ‘The Watchers’, a significant exhibition by Ali Cherri that invites viewers to look anew at museum collections—and the stories they tell. Built around two totemic sculptures, The Gatekeepers FIRE and WATER (2020), acquired by the Museums of Marseille in 2024, the exhibition stages a dialogue between Cherri’s works and nearly 80 objects drawn from the city’s collections, spanning from antiquity to the present.
As part of this immersive project, Cherri was given free rein to select works across Marseille’s public collections—from archaeology and fine art to ethnography and natural history—and to reframe them within an atmospheric, cinematic scenography. Sleep, vulnerability, animality, hybridity, and the gaze are recurring themes in a show that resists conventional museographic categorisation. Instead of grouping works by period or region, ‘The Watchers’ dissolves boundaries, inviting connections through shared gestures, forms, and states of being.
A voiceover from Les statues meurent aussi, the seminal anticolonial film essay by Alain Resnais, Chris Marker, and Ghislain Cloquet, echoes throughout the exhibition. “When souls are dead, they enter history; when statues are dead, they enter art,” recites actor Jean Negroni, setting the tone for Cherri’s meditation on cultural death and resurrection. His curatorial and artistic approach—part archival, part alchemical—revives forgotten or displaced objects, reactivating their aura.
Created for Manifesta 13 in Marseille, The Gatekeepers are four large-scale totems evoking creatures from the animal and mythological realms. The two now in the [mac] collection, FIRE and WATER, were made from curiosity objects sourced from auctions and antique shops—artefacts stripped of their original function but restored, in Cherri’s hands, to a symbolic presence. Like many others in the exhibition, these hybrid sculptures disrupt assumptions about authenticity and value. As Cherri notes: “Forgeries have a signature, just like artists!”
The exhibition also includes recent works such as La Tête qui marche (2024), Tête en terre endormie (2023), and Lucie (2023), alongside archaeological masks, ancient falcons, and 16th-century lion heads. Deprived of conventional labels or contextual framing, these pieces are displayed on light tables or in shadowy vitrines. Some appear to observe us, rather than the other way around. In this charged environment, the museum becomes a stage where objects perform rather than rest.
‘The Watchers’ also resonates with Cherri’s engagement with Giacometti, particularly in his recent participation in the Fondation Giacometti’s exhibition Envisagement. Works in the [mac] show are placed in dialogue with Alberto Giacometti: Sculpting the Void, and are on view simultaneously at the Cantini Museum. Both exhibitions probe the representation of the human face and figure, layering memory, form, and absence.
Born in Beirut and based in Paris, Cherri is a visual artist and filmmaker whose work blends sculpture, drawing, cinema, and performance. He draws on the legacies of Lebanon’s Civil War and the broader region to explore how violence shapes bodily, historical, and cultural landscapes. His art, often marked by a tactile engagement with materials, brings together the living and the non-living, the real and the imagined.
Curated by Cherri with Stéphanie Airaud (with the support of trainee curator Christelle Faure and curators from Marseille’s various museums), ‘The Watchers’ is more than an exhibition—it is a haunting and poetic experiment in museum-making. By dissolving borders between disciplines and eras, it offers a renewed gaze on the collections of Marseille and a compelling reflection on what it means to bear witness.
The exhibition will be on view from the 6th of June 2025 until the 4th of January 2026. Please visit the [mac] Museum of Contemporary Art in Marseille for more information.