We are delighted to give you access to all the episodes of « The Ideal Exhibition with Hervé Tullet. »
« The Ideal Exhibition » is an exhibition by Hervé Tullet… without Hervé Tullet! It is a global collaborative project. In the episodes of « The Ideal Exhibition, » Hervé shows you how to create a series of simple artworks that anyone can do, and how to assemble them into a real exhibition.
Once you have created yours, send us your photos (info@expoideale.com). We will share them on the project’s social media, just as we have shared photos of hundreds of exhibitions that have already taken place in France, Italy, the USA, Canada, Spain, Argentine… In schools, museums, classrooms, and libraries, on shelves , or even in matchboxes!
You can watch the episodes of « The Ideal Exhibition » in any order you like, and you certainly don’t have to make every single creation. I am suggesting a sequence here that alternates between « creations » and « recreations »—it is entirely up to you whether you follow it or not! I have also included a whole series of BONUS features that I hope will inspire you to push your creations even further.
Hervé Tullet
All videos are subtitled in English, Spanish, Italian, Korean.
What’s the ideal exhibition? L’expo Idéale?
Hervé Tullet explains to children how to create their own ideal exhibition.
How do you make your ideal exhibition?
« There is no rule »
Tape
By positioning and then repositioning his tape on the paper, Hervé Tullet creates unexpected revelations for the eyes.
« I like to start an ideal exhibition with this simple and highly visual process. It’s a great entry point into my way of creating: an idea, simple patterns, and a touch of chance. »
LINES
Horizontal lines, vertical lines: Hervé Tullet crosses them, layers them, tears them apart, and the magic happens.
« Why limit yourself to lines? It’s up to you to surprise me. With dots? Spots? Scribbles? »
Dice Game
Hervé Tullet likes to let his creation be guided by chance. Through this dice game, he shows how to create characters with fun shapes.
Splotches
« Thanks to a play of tearing and crumpling, Hervé Tullet creates spots with unique textures and outlines. »
Holes
Hervé Tullet punches holes in the paper and creates layers. Little windows are formed, telling us a whole new story.
Small windows
By making slits and tears in a drawing, Hervé Tullet creates new artworks like a series of windows that open and close.
Roads
Hervé Tullet tears and pulls the paper to see where it takes him, creating a path. A interplay of perspectives around the tear.
Paper collection
With Hervé Tullet, nothing is lost, everything is transformed—especially scraps of paper. He keeps them, collects them, and gives them a new life.
« This is the very essence of ‘The Ideal Exhibition’: everything is beautiful, even the smallest scrap of paper. It is the accumulation of all our artworks that will reveal this ultimate beauty! Sometimes, I leave a bin full of these little pieces of paper in a corner of the exhibition. Visitors can take one as a souvenir to take home, or they can start a small paper collection. My favorites are often the neon ones. »
Sumo Game
In Hervé Tullet’s imagination, markers turn into sumo wrestlers, and we play at making them face off in the arena—or could it be a plate?
Big Windows
Hervé Tullet plays with windows and ink spots, offering new perspectives and spaces to look at.
« They create a new perspective on the exhibition. They can also be used as a frame to take a photo. »
Traffic Jam
Play helps unleash creativity. Hervé transforms a blank sheet of paper into a racetrack where pencils become cars, freely leaving their tracks behind.
Totems
Through subtle combinations of colors and shapes, Hervé Tullet builds his paper totems.
a giant totem
Mosaics
Hervé Tullet brings drawings together. Through volume and layering, he creates relief mosaics.
Mobile
Hervé Tullet makes the spots of color come alive by piercing them, punching holes in them, and making them move.
Crumbled splotches
By crumpling the paper, Hervé Tullet plays with time and shapes, giving them a history.
Folded splotches
Hervé Tullet brings the spots together to create relief and rhythm.
The Wall
Hervé Tullet creates a memory wall of his creations, like a gathering place for all the experiments.
Flower Workshop
Hervé Tullet leads a flower workshop, bringing all generations together around a major collaborative creation.
« I’ve done it hundreds of times, and it always works, wherever I go and no matter the number of participants. You can find a detailed description of it in my book Art Workshops for Children. »
In addition to « The Ideal Exhibition » videos, Hervé Tullet created a series of about twenty creative workshops while he was bored in his studio during lockdown, which perfectly complement « The Ideal Exhibition. » We are offering a few of them here, and a YouTube playlist featuring all of them can be found here.
Here, we invite you to play with shadows, build sculptures, make music with colors, or even dance!
Social medias
They are a fantastic source for discovering exhibitions that have been created in the past and getting some inspiration for your own!
https://lexpoideale.com/fr/
https://www.facebook.com/lexpoideale/
https://www.instagram.com/expo_ideale_herve_tullet/
To write to us and send us your photos : info@expoideale.com
A MUSEUM IN A BOOK
A book to be explored like an exhibition, co-written with Sandrine Granon. Simple lines, dots, and strokes are transformed into a true festival for the eyes. Great inspiration to get you started!
The « École Nuage » Masterclass: Going even further (pro)
In June 2022, a group of 50 Italian teachers took part in a unique artistic and educational experience. For two weeks, in the heart of the Italian Friuli mountains, they participated in a series of workshops and conferences led by Hervé Tullet and educator Alessandra Falconi, aimed at questioning and transforming their classroom practices through an immersion into the artist’s creative world.
From this experience, Hervé and Alessandra extracted 10 concepts summarized in 10 words. 10 words that give viewers the keys to imagining a new kind of school, rethinking their daily work, building confidence in the creative process, finding new « anchor points, » and unleashing their creativity to relearn how to co-create with children.