Animapolis

Histoires De Carres > Spring-Summer 2019

In this phantasmagorical city, zebras, dinosaurs, monkeys and toucans joyfully run riot. Each detail tells a story. A dragon lays siege to the Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science, a leopard sets sights on the Kremlin in Moscow, a panda and a crocodile pass the time of day at the foot of Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral. And, to get the very best view of this delightful spectacle, other protagonists gather at the windows of the Hermes building on Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris. An exuberant composition by Jan Bajtlik, a graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Animapolis is the artist's first silk for Hermes.

Le Monde d'Hermes > Printemps Ete > Numero 74

The Language of Dreams

Animapolis: a drawing that's the doorway to this year of dreams, and to Le Monde d'Hermes. An entrance? An antechamber/ A vestibule? No: it is a leap, a dive, taking the plunge! I love to get lost in the composition of this drawing. I admire its meticulousness, its fanciful yet rigorous architecture. Dinosaurs and dragons, panthers and penguins, monkeys, zebras and toucans haunt an imaginary city studded, nonetheless, with some famous buildings, from the Kremlin to the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, and even 24, Faubourg! Here apparent chaos hides a subtle sensory organisation.

Drawing is the language of dreams. It transports us elsewhere. Enigmatic, yet clear, simple yet profuse, meaningful yet secretivedown to its smallest detail; enclosed in a space that is limited and yet free, open to an infinite number of interpretations. Does my enthusiasm surprise you? But then what is dream for Hermes if not the supreme means of transport?

Pierre-Alexis Dumas, Artistic Director of Hermes