A la Recherche

Les Bains, a legendary nightclub and international party scene hot spot in the 1980s and 90s was developed into a hotel, restaurant and club.

ART+COM Studios created a site-specific installation for the renovated Les Bains. The sculpture, which brings to mind an exploded disco ball, covers the surrounding walls in scattered points of reflected light from which the words “RE TROUVE LE TEMPS PERDU” are composed over and over again.

These words can be understood as “The lost times are found” (LE TEMPS PERDU RETROUVE) or “Find the lost times” (RETROUVE LE TEMPS PERDU) depending on where the viewer starts reading.
The words are a reference to the legendary past of the space as Les Bains nightclub and ties into Marcel Proust’s magnum opus “À la recherche du temps perdu” (In Search of Lost Time), in which involuntary memories triggered by everyday activities, objects and sensations is the recurring motif.