Technical: Antique Venitian Robe Paper Wall Sculpture
Size: 86cm x 71cm

Leïla Labelle moves within a territory that is both archaeological and visionary, a place where matter becomes memory and memory turns into dream. Her art is born from a constant dialogue with the fabric of time: the fibers of washi, natural pigments, and layers of collage are the sediments of a story that crosses continents and civilizations. In these works there is not only the celebration of formal beauty, but also an inquiry into the fragility and resilience of cultures, into the ability of images to survive oblivion. What strikes the viewer is the dimension of ritual. Whether it is a kimono transformed into a paper sculpture or a face suspended in a floating universe, each work preserves the solemnity of an ancient gesture: dyeing, layering, engraving, allowing matter to absorb the weight of time. The result is an aesthetic that does not aim for immediate effect, but instead invites the spectator to linger, to listen to the silent vibrations that arrive from distant horizons. The fascination with the Orient, with the mystery of the geisha and the poetic universe of Edo, is never treated as a simple decorative quotation. Leïla restores its symbolic depth, the tension between discipline and sensuality, between order and secrecy. The surfaces she constructs evoke ancient worn frescoes, walls that have witnessed centuries of lives and now speak through cracks, shadows, and transparencies.