The Tobacco Files, Laëtitia Badaut Haussmann

The Franklin Azzi Endowment Fund is delighted to announce the solo show "The Tobacco Files" by artist Laëtitia Badaut Haussmann, represented by Galerie Allen.

Franklin Azzi and his team are hosting Laëtitia Badaut Haussmann in residence at their architecture agency as part of the "Les MAGNETiques" program supported by the Direction des Affaires Culturelles Île-de-France, Paris-Île de France Capitale Économique, and Beaux Arts Consulting.

"The Tobacco Files" is an iconographic research project initiated in 2022 during the artist's residency at the Secession in Vienna, focusing on the tobacco industry in all its forms during the 20th and 21st centuries.

For this carte blanche, Laëtitia Badaut Haussmann continues to enrich this work, which currently consists of 8,000 images collected from various sources and compiled in binders. The almost obsessive collection process, without filtering or sorting, creates a chaotic ensemble where tobacco is explored through its evolving representations: from cinema to pro and anti-tobacco campaigns, advertisements in Playboy magazine, and the exploitation of tobacco production. The subject becomes sensitive and even disturbing, highlighting the strategies of mass marketing and their grotesque as well as morbid aspects.