Around Lille full of delights, with La Laiterie by Édouard Chouteau and La Condition Publique curatored by Magda Danysz

Indeed, this Chef who has gone through many famous names of haute cuisine took control of La Laiterie, as an iconic symbol of Lille, which was honored by numerous specialized guides.

 

As a marine alternative, let you get tempted by an oyster topped for the occasion, with premium Kaviari caviar. On top of that, take some time to enjoy some yellow cold cooked egg, accompanied with bottarga, a balanced mix between alternative eggs from cod, mullet, trout, herring and pike.

L’Ecailler Parfumé is proposed “in-between” with some rapeseed oil, to spread on a slice of faluche. This bread is another specialty from the Hauts-de-France, with the addition (or not) of herb butter.

 

Continuing this iodine getaway  with a remoulade composition, marrying a tasteful spirulina and meal sausage. This ensemble is topped by a beer jelly, locally brewed in partnership with the Brasserie Belnard, even starring hop feet straight from La Laiterie.

Thereafter, we pursue with a step on black truffle, represented here by a lucullus piece, a specialty of Valenciennes, revisited here in “La Laiterie style”. Therefore, the deviled beef tongue is replaced by raw beef rib with a Porto and Madeira infused sauce, over a pan-fried and foie gras terrine, finalized in its cooking fat. All this beautiful creation has been covered personally by the Chef, by a shower of Périgord truffles. Indeed, it was a very good year for black truffles, with beautiful nuggets, reaching up to 400g, while reaching to find the firmest truffles.

 

In addition, this Terre & Mer pairing menu would not exist without a precious ravioli, offering an encounter between veal and lobster. This wedding is pleasantly flavored with a few coriander sprigs and its mustard seeds, drown into a (very hot) lobster and shrimp broth. Moreover, the 3rd generation of pigeons is proposed here from the Dequidt Family, accompanied by its jumble of shellfish (whelks, razor clams, cockles, brown crab) and carcass jus flavored with its shellfish juice.

Without forgetting the cheese tray displaying local flavors, including Lupulus ripened cheese, along other fine specimens, such as Shropshire Blue, Beaufort, Morbier but this time refined in the Hauts-de-France region. All of them are accompanied by a savorful mixed salad with flax seeds, apple, ginger and caramel vinegar.

 

Then, just after an amazing entremet, discover the sweet character delivered by the Caractère au Chocolat. This kind of half-cooked chocolate and ganache cake, is topped with a bit of caramelized gruet and cocoa sorbet without lactose. Most of those precious ingredients come from the famous Chocolaterie de l’Opéra, located in Provence and more specifically with premium cocoa from the Dominican Republic.

In addition, the pastry team recently opted for the local Chocolaterie Encuentro, in order to design their own cocoa desserts and eventually further alternative culinary creations.

 

 

Still in those Lille surroundings, we invite you to explore the industrial past from Roubaix, lately upgraded thanks to different social and cultural initiatives. Among them, we can count on La Condition Publique, a dynamic cultural center located in a formed bricked textile warehouse, initially intended for the storage of wool and silks, before the storage of artworks. Therefore, this symbol of the city’s economic prosperity has become a must-see cultural factory, notably thanks to a surprising rehabilitation by the architect Patrick Bouchain in 2004. This renovation respected the work of the initial structure of Albert Bouvy, from 1902.

Apart from its function of creative laboratory, the site of La Condition Publique is as well a place to work and art dissemination, at the crossroads between urban, cultural and environmental roads. 

 

For instance, you may walk through its wide surface of rooftops, covered streets and glassed canopies, and then better understand the evolution of this building and its new uses. Indeed, these roofs have been vegetated since the construction of the edifice, along a breathtaking view over Roubaix.

Furthermore, in order to optimize the conservation of the former textile materials stored in the halls, those hanging gardens were settled to maintain a constant and necessary humidity rate, for the storage of wool. Nonetheless, a pile of urban dust threw on those roofs time after time, allowing a wild and particularly rich vegetation to develop there. At last, the rehabilitation initiated in 2003 aimed to preserve this vegetation of more than 300 species, telling the story of Roubaix, with some plants from Poland witnessing the various immigration waves.

 

At the occasion of the upcoming season 2022, a series of brand new exhibitions has been settled. Among them, this “Urbain.es” installation has been settled from 31st March until 24th July 2022, under the curatorship of the famous Parisian gallery owner Magda Danysz.

Located in the main exhibition space of La Condition Publique, which is also the wide indoor skate park, where the previous act Street Generation(s) took place in 2017, about the history of street art, of which Magda Danysz was already the exhibition curator. This proposal was carried out around documentary testimonies reconstituting historical urban interventions, which were mixed with original artworks loaned for the event by various artists and collectors. 

 

Therefore, discover different beautiful creations of 27 artists, this exhibition questions the way in which women artists take over common spaces to intervene artistically. In the same way, this exhibition focuses about all types of artists, whatever their gender, introduce the figure of femininity into their street art. Indeed, spread over 1500 m², this is not a feminist exhibition, since each of the selected artists offer their own experience and vision of femininity, through their imagination highlighting their place in society.

30 years after creating her first contemporary art gallery, Magda Danysz still remains amazed by artists, defining herself as a director. This exhibition holds a 3-dimensional scenography, in which Magda Danysz had worked on for several months.

 

Among the artists exhibited, we count on El Seed, Maya Hayuk, Icy & Sot, Mark Jenkins & Sandra Fernandez, Kashink, Madame, Robert Montgomery, Eko Nugroho, Saype, Swoon, Aya Tarek, YZ, Zevs and Magda Sayeg. The latter has been staying in residence during two weeks, in order to finalize her knitting art installation, around a metallic staircase. We invite you to listen to her artistic philosophy in her interview, available on the video below.

Otherwise, it’s also a good occasion to get into the urban art displayed all around La Condition Publique, gradually completed by the support of implication of various artists. Thus, you could admire the colorful fresco of Maya Hayuk on a typical Northern facade, an American artist who wanted to pay a tribute to her Ukrainian origins.