Illustrator and author of beautiful and sophisticated comic strips (such as TNT en Amérique and Contre la bande dessinée), Jochen Gerner continues his incursions into the world of design and architecture with a piece conceived for the Museum of Modern Art in Luxemburg (on show until 2 March).

“Home” takes its inspiration from the Ikea catalogue. On each of its 336 pages, items of furniture from the Swedish chain store disappear behind brush strokes in neutral colours (grey, black and white). The furnishings’ concealment reveals the structure of the room, leading us back to the essence of a place. “I try to see clearly, to measure the sum of things as if I were a bailiff who empties a house of its contents. I try and see the line of the perspective, the corners of a room emptied out. But this piece is also a reflection on graphic design, on the typographical model and structure of printed material,” explains the French illustrator. The result is a catalogue in reverse, where the empty rooms are still to be decorated. Or, as Gerner explains, where the settings have become “a series of deserted places, close to a certain kind of Scandinavian Suprematism”. Elena Sommariva