This publication relates the human and artistic adventure initiated by Mohamed El Khatib and Valérie Mréjen in 2020, and testifies to this unique experience of transforming the nursing home Les Blés d'or (LBO), in France, into a multidisciplinary art center. Together, they have invited artists to weave a dialogue with residents and caregivers. While nursing homes have a reputation for being places of isolation, the project intends to change our view of these end-of-life establishments, by making art appear where we would not imagine it.

“Strolling through the corridors of the nursing home, we measure how an artistic gesture can act as a powerful collective ritual, creating comfort and freedom beyond beauty. Through the collection of the nursing home, we wanted to favor an art of encounter”, announces El Khatib.

Introduced by a text of the historian Patrick Boucheron – who celebrates old age for its sovereign freedom to forget what suits it, and restores a dignity that it is not forgotten –, this book presents the artworks created within of Les Blés d'or nursing home, through the exchange that has been established with the residents.