Let’s Face the Music Together: Softness Moves Mountains

Agnès Wyler transforms the nine members of the Barbapapa family into ten hand-sculpted ceramic figures – one for each character, and an additional figure that offers a quiet presence, open to interpretation. Each figure is paired with a ceramic scene named after actual playgrounds from around the world – abstract imaginaries shaped by the resonance of their titles rather than by their physical forms. Blending pop iconography with tactile practice, the exhibition reflects on memory, form, and the porous boundary between imagination and the built environment.

10 Ceramic Playgrounds
For the Barbapapa Family

1. Superkilen Park (Copenhagen, Denmark)
For Barbamama (the calm, nurturing mother figure in black)
The green base and twin pink worm-like figures suggest unity and quiet strength – a surreal love story in motion. Barbamama represents silent revolutions, a matriarch grounded in gentle power.

2. Gulliver Park (Valencia, Spain)
For Barbapapa (the warm, protective pink father)
A giant reclining cartoonish figure, welcoming and climbable – this is the soft monument to hospitality. Just like Barbapapa himself: large, gentle, and always there for others.

3. Takino Hills (Sapporo, Japan)
For Barbalala (the musical, nature-loving green dreamer)
A serene, hill-like face with a gentle smile – quiet and meditative. Barbalala channels harmony and nature’s rhythm, making this a landscape of peaceful resonance.

4. Tamarin Trail (Houston Zoo, USA)
For Barbazoo (the yellow animal-loving naturalist)
Energetic, curious, and filled with colorful tactile bumps – this playground pulses with playful animal energy. Like Barbazoo, it invites children to explore the ecology of fun.

5. Monkey Bars (Kowloon Park, Hong Kong)
For Barbabeau (the black, fuzzy artist and wild spirit)
Full of quirky, expressive little figures – a chaotic troupe of playful personalities. Barbabeau represents untamed creativity and the freedom of spontaneous gesture.

6. City Layers (St. Louis, USA)
For Barbalib (the orange intellectual and book-lover)
A dense ceramic field layered with color and form – like an abstract archive. Barbalib, ever the scholar, stores and reinterprets worlds of knowledge in textured systems.

7. Tire Stack Field (Tokyo, Japan)
For Barbabravo (the red sporty adventurer)
Colorful chaos and stacked DIY energy evoke playfulness and physicality. Barbabravo brings boldness, physical courage, and a joyful embrace of the unpredictable.

8. Imagination Grid (New York City, USA)
For Barbabelle (the purple beauty queen with a fragile ego)
Packed with tiny bright figures – whimsical, self-contained stories. Barbabelle's flair for drama and beauty finds a fragile echo in this compact world of expressive forms.

9. Tivoli Cats (Copenhagen, Denmark)
For Barbavolt (the orange techie and inventor)
A surreal feline stage, theatrical and strange. Barbavolt’s experimental energy fits this fantasy playground of upright cat-like figures, like prototypes in a dream lab.

10. Blaxland Mounds (Sydney, Australia)
For Barbabright (the scientist and explorer of worlds in blue)
A tactile field of mounds and playful bumps. for its sense of sculpted landscapes and curious terrain.