Uchronia’s ‘Paradox’ at Paul Bert Serpette for 2025 Fête des Puces
For the 2025 edition of the Fête des Puces, held at the Paul Bert Serpette market in Saint-Ouen, Paris, France, Uchronia was invited to design this year’s thematic installation: Paradox. The collective, led by architect and designer Julien Sebban, developed a series of site-specific inflatable installations that transform the market’s entrances and interiors into a unified scenographic experience.
Uchronia’s proposal examines the theme of paradox through material, scale, and typological contrast. The studio introduces monumental inflatable sculptures that reinterpret familiar architectural and domestic forms in unexpected ways. By using inflatables, lightweight, temporary, and luminous, the installations engage with ideas of permanence, transience, and reinterpretation, echoing the eclectic and ever-evolving character of the iconic antique market.
Uchronia designs site-specific installations for the 2025 Fête des Puces in Saint-Ouen | all images by Oracle Paris
NINE Inflatable installations explore expressions of paradox
Each of the market’s three main entrances features a distinct installation exploring a different expression of paradox through form and function. Inflatable Antiquity: Classical columns and sculptural fragments, torsos, busts, and limbs, emerge from or break free of their architectural bases. The installation juxtaposes the stability of classical art with the impermanence of inflatable material, turning traditional symbols of endurance into light, mobile forms. Oversized Domestic Objects: Everyday vessels such as vases and amphorae are reinterpreted as monumental totems. Typically fragile and ornamental, these objects are scaled up and rendered in inflatable form, creating a visual dialogue between delicacy and exaggeration, intimacy and spectacle. Levitation Chairs: Chairs representing various design periods, from the Louis XIV era to the present, are suspended within translucent inflatable columns. The piece reframes utilitarian furniture as cultural artifacts, contrasting their practical origins with a museum-like mode of display. Together, these installations establish a visual and spatial rhythm across the market, connecting historical references with contemporary material experimentation. Through form and scale, the design by creative studio Uchronia challenges perceptions of weight, value, and authenticity, central notions to the flea market experience itself.
the installation transforms Paul Bert Serpette market through monumental inflatable forms
Uchronia reimagines familiar typologies through playful design
The inflatables, produced in reflective and translucent materials, respond to daylight and movement, transforming throughout the day. Their lightweight construction allows for rapid installation with minimal environmental impact, aligning with Uchronia’s interest in adaptable and temporary structures. Inside, ten curated stands, including those of Arthur Bruet, Galerie Vauclair, LVS Antiquités, Hugo Greiner, Galerie Glustin, and Remix Gallery, feature scenographies developed in collaboration with Uchronia. Each setting interprets the Paradox theme through combinations of instinct, chance, and historical layering, mirroring the unpredictability inherent to antique collecting. With Paradox, Uchronia continues its investigation into the spatial potential of inflatables, using softness, lightness, and scale as design tools to reimagine familiar typologies within contemporary contexts.
Uchronia explores paradoxes of form, scale, and material
interiors transform into a unified scenographic experience
the work examines the theme of paradox through material, scale, and typological contrast
the curation echoes the eclectic and ever-evolving character of the iconic antique market
reflective and translucent materials respond to light and movement throughout the day
inflatable sculptures reinterpret architectural and domestic objects in unexpected ways
Uchronia reimagines classical columns and sculptures in soft, flexible forms
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project info:
name: Paradox
designer: Uchronia | @uchronia_world
lead designer: Julien Sebban
inflatables by: Digital Inflatables | @digitalinflatables
location: Saint-Ouen, Paris, France
dates: September 25th – October 5th, 2025
photographer: Oracle Paris | @oracle_paris
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edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom