Dahomey Spirit

Juliette Agnel presents a unique project that she created specifically for the space of the Carrousel du Louvre as part of a carte blanche for the Photo Days festival. During the summer of 2024, she visited the Jardin d’Essai of the Zinsou Foundation in Benin. There, she discovered its unique vegetation, a rare testament to the Dahomey gap, a climatic upheaval that occurred in this part of the world 4,500 years ago. Sensitive to the telluric forces, the artist carved her way through this historical cradle of voodoo to work at night in communion with nature. By using smoke and lights of different colors, she creates a distance from her subject — these uniquely resilient plants — while also allowing for a passage to an invisible world.