Presented at the Château d’Azay-le-Rideau as part of the Bicentenary of the invention of photography, the solo exhibition Karen Knorr inhabits the château (13 June – 1 November 2026) offers an immersion into the distinctive universe of the American photographer Karen Knorr. This retrospective brings together more than forty years of artistic practice and highlights a body of work that explores the relationships between places, their inhabitants, and the narratives they generate.
Since the late 1970s, the artist has focused on depicting interiors and institutional spaces, particularly London bourgeois homes and museums, where décor becomes a subtle revealer of social and intimate identities. Her images question how architecture and environments shape behaviour, imagination, and social roles.
From the 2000s onwards, her practice evolved towards staged compositions in which wild animals—tigers, deer, monkeys, or peacocks—are introduced into heritage spaces. This dialogue between nature and culture produces hybrid images that are both poetic and unsettling, disrupting the solemnity of historical settings and revealing their underlying tensions.
Designed specifically for the Château d’Azay-le-Rideau, the exhibition combines photographs and an immersive installation in dialogue with the venue’s furniture and décor. Without disrupting its balance, the artist develops a subtle interplay of infiltration between fiction and reality, where the images seem to inhabit the architecture itself.
The exhibition also explores more intimate themes linked to memory, grief, and the transformation of relationships following a romantic breakup. It thus reflects on the persistence of memories and on how gestures and places once shared can be reactivated by new presences.
The château becomes a living space, traversed by images, narratives, and animal presences, where history, fiction, and emotion intertwine.
