Room 607: Art You Can Sleep In
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
At La Fantaisie in Paris, Szabolcs Bozó has transformed a hotel suite into an immersive world of drawings, original works, hand-painted lighting, specially commissioned textiles and large soft sculptures. The Art Suite is available to book until 22 February 2027.
AI-generated image designed to capture the spirit of the room; details and layout may vary.
Beyond the door to Room 607, creatures resembling characters from an unfamiliar picture book begin to appear. They peer out from cushions and bedspreads, line the walls and emerge from drawings as large textile figures. When the hand-painted lampshades are lit, the same visual world extends into the light itself.
Hungarian artist Szabolcs Bozó conceived an intervention that encompasses the entire 42-square-metre suite, which overlooks La Fantaisie’s garden. The hotel removed the existing artworks and replaced them with works by Bozó. The installation includes pieces created in the room itself, cushions and bedspreads featuring zoomorphic motifs, large-scale soft sculptures, and hand-painted lampshades. An accompanying publication introduces the artist and the project, with details of the original works available for purchase.
When Painting Moves into the Room
Bozó brought one element of his studio into the project: a wall covered in drawings. The collaboration also gave him the opportunity to work with fabric and functional objects, allowing guests to experience his work through touch and everyday use during an encounter that lasts considerably longer than a gallery visit.
All images courtesy of La Fantaisie
That shift changes the relationship between the work and the viewer. A cushion, bedspread or lampshade retains its practical purpose while also forming part of a unified artistic composition. In a gallery, visitors decide how long to stay and how closely to look. Here, the guest shares the room with the installation. Over the course of a stay, the work becomes part of the evening, the morning, and the small rituals in between. It remains within view even when attention shifts to a suitcase, a book or a lamp that has been switched off.
From Order Pads to Museums
Szabolcs Bozó was born in Pécs in 1992 and has lived in London since 2011. He moved to the British capital at the age of nineteen to learn English. While working as a waiter, he produced hundreds of drawings on restaurant order pads, later transferring them to larger formats in a studio above the restaurant. He shared them on Instagram, where a Spanish gallerist discovered his work in 2018 and invited him to take part in an artist residency in Mallorca.
One early source of inspiration for his characters was Henry, the rounded vacuum cleaner he used at the restaurant, its casing printed with a smiling face. It is an apt starting point for an artist who so often endows objects and animals with human qualities. His figures also draw on the visual heritage of Hungarian animation and folklore, although Bozó has said he was unaware of their influence while growing up.
His career soon moved beyond the internet and smaller galleries. Solo and museum exhibitions have been staged at M Woods Museum in Beijing, Sifang Art Museum in China, Ludwig Museum and NEO Contemporary in Budapest, as well as at Semiose and Almine Rech. His paintings, drawings and sculptures now form a recognisable world of anthropomorphic creatures, vivid colour and deliberately spontaneous mark-making.
The Hotel as a Starting Point
La Fantaisie has 63 rooms and ten suites on Rue Cadet in Paris’s ninth arrondissement. Martin Brudnizki designed the interiors, bringing together bold patterns, rich colour, textiles, handcrafted mosaics, and botanical references. Bozó therefore entered a setting with a highly developed visual identity.
His intervention amplifies the hotel’s affinity for colour and ornament, anchoring it in the work and imagery of a single artist. The collaboration follows an earlier project by French artist Ben Arpée and forms part of the hotel’s series of artist residencies. Room 607 remains a bookable hotel suite while also functioning as a temporary, artist-led installation.
Works Created for the Suite
Original works displayed in the room are available to purchase, and the collaboration has also produced a collection of caps, stickers, playing cards and trays. The publication beside the bed provides further information about the artist and the project, including details of the available works. To protect the art on display, the hotel requires a €1,200 pre-authorisation on arrival.
The Art Suite is available to book until 22 February 2027. In Room 607, Bozó’s work remains part of the experience from the final light of the evening to the first glance upon waking.
