Dimanche après-midi à Venise

SOLO SHOW at Boucan

“Sunday Afternoon at Le Venise” is a solo exhibition by scenographer and visual artist Charly Buron. Through sculptures, drawings, and a miniature architectural model, the work revisits fragments of childhood memory. The project draws from Sunday drives to Le Venise, an iconic ice cream shop in Saint-Trond, and the houses along the road with large street-facing windows where women sat on high stools, watching passing cars. As a child, these scenes left a strong impression. The figures were striking, but the empty stools and the hidden interiors behind the curtains were just as intriguing, spaces that felt mysterious and charged with imagination.

In this body of work, Charly brings together these memories with references to her grandparents’ Catholic upbringing and her childhood fascination with building Barbie and Playmobil interiors. The work creates a dialogue between religious iconography, domestic spaces, and the public display of femininity.

At the center of the exhibition are the “strip-tyques.” These sculptural objects are named after real brothels located along that road. When closed, they resemble street signs. A pearl chain seals them, referencing both the artist’s grandmother’s jewelry and the rosary. When opened, they reveal intimate miniature interiors. These small worlds recall Polly Pocket toys or childhood diaries, private spaces filled with details and secrets.

Displayed side by side, the works evoke the arrangement of the Stations of the Cross in churches. Nostalgia, personal mythology, and cultural symbolism intertwine.
The exhibition becomes an intimate exploration of memory, identity, and family heritage, while preserving the sense of wonder and curiosity that belongs to childhood.