Charlap Hyman & Herrero: Ouvrez-Moi
Alma Zevi Projects, Venice, 2019

For their first exhibition in Europe, architectural studio Charlap Hyman & Herrero (CHH) developed an immersive environment exploring the idea of mirrors and light. Referencing a scene in Jean Cocteau's 1932 film, The Blood of a Poet, in which a mirror turns to water upon the command ‘ouvrez-moi’, CHH’s mirrors become lamps, vases, vitrines, and aquariums.

Working closely with CHH and Alma Zevi Projects, D.H.office produced custom-built furniture and hand-made mirrors in Murano which were used to transform the small exhibition space, itself once a Venetian mirror workshop. Shells and wild grasses collected from the Lido beach and around the lagoon were added as finishing touches.

Fabrication of the hand-etched mirror fragments was a particular challenge, as the shapes were rendered to look haphazardly broken but were in fact precisely specified by CHH.