Joseph Walsh : Sculpting the Memory of the Hôtel de Sully

Designer Joseph Walsh dialogues between sculpture, space, and history

This September, Irish artist and designer Joseph Walsh will install his most ambitious European exhibition yet. The location is the Hôtel de Sully, the seventeenth-century Paris mansion that houses the Centre des monuments nationaux. The show, titled Arcanum Formae, opens on September 10, 2026, and runs through October 25, 2026. Furthermore, it coincides with Paris Design Week and stretches across Paris Fashion Week and Art Basel Paris. Joseph Walsh founded his studio in County Cork at the age of twenty. Consequently, he built his reputation on sculptural furniture that bends wood into forms once thought impossible. Now, he brings that practice to one of the Marais’ most storied addresses. Above all, he fills its historic Orangerie and gardens with bronze, oak, and gold leaf.

The Orangerie and Its Hidden Paths

The Hôtel de Sully has shaped the Marais since 1625. Builders raised it under Louis XIII, and the Duke of Sully later acquired the property. The mansion reflects a clear transition: Renaissance ornament gradually gives way to classical rigor. Today, its carved façades and courtyard-garden layout remain defining features of Parisian aristocratic design.

The Orangerie stands among the site’s most distinctive spaces. A hidden passage links the gardens directly to the Place des Vosges. Over the centuries, literary figures such as Madame de Sévigné and Voltaire gathered within these very walls. Today, the building houses the headquarters of the Centre des monuments nationaux. That gives it both historical depth and cultural relevance. That combination makes it an exceptional stage for Walsh’s first major European garden installation.

Few contemporary designers gain this kind of access. The Centre des monuments nationaux rarely opens its own headquarters to outside artistic projects of this scale. Therefore, the exhibition signals a clear shift. French cultural institutions increasingly recognize Walsh’s work as belonging among Europe’s leading design voices.

An Immersive Landscape

Rather than occupy a single gallery, Joseph Walsh transforms the entire site. The installation spans the Orangerie, its surrounding galleries, the courtyard, and the gardens beyond. Each area responds directly to the mansion’s architecture, light, and atmosphere. As a result, visitors move through one continuous landscape, where sculpture, furniture, and architecture exist in constant dialogue.

The exhibition splits into two distinct zones: the garden and the Orangerie’s interior. Outdoors, scale and weather dominate the experience. Indoors, intimacy and craft take over instead. Together, the two zones offer a complete picture of how Walsh’s studio approaches material, time, and human presence.

In the garden, a monumental sculpture from the Magnus series marks the exhibition’s first public European debut. The piece combines cast bronze with laminated oak, finished entirely in gold leaf. Its lower half preserves the raw texture of the casting process. Its upper half, meanwhile, curves upward in reinforced oak, built using a free-lamination technique developed in-house. The circular form evokes the passage of time and the bond between nature and human hands.

Inside the Orangerie, the studio presents new work from its Tree Legacy Project. This initiative transforms rare, centuries-old trees into sculptural furniture. A walnut dining table anchors the room, its surface carved to echo the building’s own weathered history. Nearby, a cabinet built from sculpted ash houses a collection of antique porcelain, its bronze hinges forged and shaped by hand. Finally, a bench made from a diseased elm tree completes the room. Its twin already stands in an Austrian castle garden, where that same elm once grew.

Who Is Joseph Walsh

For over two decades, Walsh has redefined wood through sculptural experimentation. Major institutions collect his work, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Centre Pompidou, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Nature drives his practice; he draws on its movement and constant transformation. Rather than fix form early, he lets it emerge through making. Consequently, he developed the expressive language that defines his work today.

Over time, his studio evolved into a material research lab. The team developed original lamination and fabrication methods. These techniques combine structural strength with unexpected lightness.

Walsh’s recognition extends internationally. His Magnus RINN now sits permanently in Kyoto’s Chion-in Temple, following his presentation at the Irish Pavilion during Expo 2025 Osaka. Few Western designers achieve permanent placement in an active temple complex. Therefore, this milestone confirms his position as a global figure in contemporary design.