Nina Hofstetter

An Invitation to a Salon Gathering

All monsters are welcome here.

A salon is a gathering, a carefully orchestrated meeting of minds. In the tradition of the French literary and philosophical salons of the 17th and 18th centuries, these spaces were created to delight and to teach — aut delectare aut prodesse. Today, we continue this practice, inviting imagination into our living rooms.

This exhibition was inspired by Jess Zimmerman’s book Women and Other Monsters. The myths, female figures, and shifting representations of women throughout history guided this project, transformed into a living, surreal world.

Three women from different corners of the earth met in a shared dream. They designed a home of wonder, curiosity, and collection, opening their doors to visitors with rituals, activities, and glimpses of treasures.

On their walls hang windows of every shape, color, and dimension, opening onto worlds traveled, dreams visited, and realms gathered. Fantasy and reality merge; the inner life unfolds in surreal, uncanny, and magical complexity.

Inspired by myth, fairytale, occultism, and mysticism, we explore the delicate boundary between imagination and reality, questioning how much of the world is truly “real.”

The room itself becomes a canvas: corners for drawing, hanging fabrics, translucent curtains, pearls, threads, tapestries, and domestic objects mingling with the fantastical.