PARIS.- When Claire Tabouret speaks about her latest project, there is a sense of quiet awe mixed with responsibility. Few contemporary artists are asked to contribute to a monument as symbolically charged as Notre-Dame de Paris. Yet with D’un seul souffle (In a Single Breath), presented at Gallery 10.2 of the Grand Palais, Tabouret invites the public into the very heart of this rare commission—while it is still unfolding.

The exhibition reveals the full-scale mock-ups, sketches, and preparatory works for six contemporary stained-glass windows that will eventually be installed in the south aisle of Notre-Dame’s nave. Selected in December 2024, Tabouret was named the winner of a major consultation led by the French Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with the historic Simon-Marq workshop, one of the most respected stained-glass ateliers in France.

Rather than waiting for the finished windows to speak for themselves, Tabouret chose transparency. Visitors encounter the monumental “cartoons”—each standing nearly seven meters tall—alongside the studies that gave them form. The exhibition’s scenography deliberately evokes the atmosphere of a working studio, allowing audiences to experience the rare intimacy of a major public artwork still in progress.

Working within the strict guidelines set by Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris, Tabouret adopted a color palette that is both vivid and restrained, designed to preserve the cathedral’s distinctive white light. To achieve this balance, she turned to monotype printmaking, a technique she has practiced obsessively for years. Painting with ink on transparent plexiglass, often in reverse, she combines expressive gestures with precise stenciled forms—especially in the rosettes and decorative motifs that subtly echo the cathedral’s 19th-century stained glass.

Each of the six windows is composed of roughly fifty individual printed elements, later assembled into vast compositions that mirror the structure of the final glass panels. The result is both contemporary and deeply respectful of tradition, bridging centuries through process rather than imitation.

The thematic anchor of the project is Pentecost, chosen by the Archdiocese of Paris. A symbol of unity and mutual understanding across languages and cultures, the theme resonated deeply with the artist. In a world marked by division and uncertainty, Tabouret saw in Pentecost not dogma, but hope—a visual language capable of speaking quietly, yet powerfully, through light.

At the Grand Palais, that hope is not presented as a finished statement, but as a living process—still breathing, still becoming.