For three months, Olow is taking over the Madeleine Café in Nantes to extend the Invisible Happiness collection beyond clothing. More than just an exhibition, it’s a space to experience, designed as a breather from the city’s hustle and bustle.
On the agenda: an exhibition, workshops, talks, audio walks… All of it away from screens.
The world moves fast, never sleeps, and demands that we be everywhere at once. With so much light and noise, we no longer see the little joys right beside us. Yet they haven’t disappeared—they’ve simply become invisible.
To rediscover them, sometimes all it takes is a step to the side. Slow down, stop walking in step with everyone else, and rediscover those simple acts that involve only yourself and cost nothing: skipping stones, watching a plant grow between two sidewalks, taking your time.
That’s what Invisible Happiness is all about. For the duration of this collection, we invite you to slow down with us and look a little to the side. That’s often where what we’d stopped seeing is hiding.
Madeleine Café
7 Rue Pelisson 44000 Nantes
An invitation to slow down, to take a step back and rediscover those little joys that have become invisible.
Programming
Madeleine Café (Nantes)
Thursday, October 8 — Opening Reception / Live Painting / Live Concert
EXHIBITION OPENING - FREE - Starting at 6:00 p.m.
Live painting / CHEVAL TATTOO CLUB - 6:00 PM–8:00 PM
A graduate of the School of Applied Arts, Cheval Tattoo Club (aka Briand) is a hypersensitive, intuitive, spontaneous, and sincere artist whose naive yet precise graphic style allows him to express his emotions, struggles, and dreams with poetry and gentleness. He creates a world that is as pure as it is fantastical, where animals and nature often take center stage. As an artist featured in the collection, he will be there to paint live on a large-format canvas on the evening of the opening.
Live Concert / DOG MEDIUM - 8:00 PM–9:00 PM
Rapha will perform solo, just him and his guitar, playing emotionally charged songs about life, usually composed between his bedroom and his garden.
Click here to register
Wednesday, November 4 — DJ Sieste / Lecture
DJ SIESTE / LENPARROT - FREE - 5:00 PM–7:00 PM
When he’s not composing, Lenparrot enjoys listening to and discovering music—and sharing his discoveries in DJ sets that feel like sonic journeys. —sometimes setting aside the urge to get people dancing in favor of introspective sequences, giving pride of place to floating tempos—from jazz to ambient music that transcends time and continents. For over ten years, his mixes have taken on diverse and varied forms.
Talk / Behind the Scenes of Olow - FREE - 8:00 PM–9:30 PM
For 20 years, Olow has grown against the grain, without investors, maintaining control over its creative direction. In this conversation, Valentin and Mathieu look back on their journey. How two friends launched a clothing brand in 2006 and kept it going for two decades. What worked, what nearly brought it all to a halt, the choices they don’t regret, and those they’d do differently. They also discuss the industry as it stands today: producing in small batches, collaborating with artists, holding their own against algorithms and overproduction, and staying true to their vision when everything pushes them to move faster. A simple and sincere conversation for those who dream of starting their own brand—or who simply want to understand what goes on behind the scenes of an independent brand.
Wednesday, November 18 - Coffee Tasting
Coffee Tasting / MOJO Coffee Club - FREE (reservation required; 10 spots available) - Starting at 2:00 PM
An experience centered around a cupping table (a blind coffee tasting protocol), a sensory exercise that brings together all the professions in the coffee industry.
This cupping session focuses on the different drying processes for coffee cherries. It will help you better understand—or rediscover—the fascinating impact of drying and fermentation on your cup of coffee. Workshop led by Thomas Hiertes (co-founder of MOJO Coffee Club), who has nearly 20 years of experience in the coffee industry: barista, roaster, trainer, consultant…
Open to everyone, from experienced coffee enthusiasts to beginners.
Interested? Send a message to charline@olow.fr
Wednesday, December 2 — DJ Sieste
DJ SIESTE / CHILL JAY - FREE - 5:00 PM–7:00 PM
As his name suggests, Chilly Jay isn’t the type to be swayed solely by the heat of the dance floor. Behind the high volume and heavy bass he’s known for lies a different kind of listening experience—slower, more open—that of a DJ who knows a party isn’t measured solely in BPM.
His vinyl collection, fueled by ambient, mellow jazz, and weightless world music, was just waiting for a space to unfold in a different way. DJ Sieste is that step to the side: a moment of respite where the mix becomes a caress, where you no longer dance but drift away, lying down with your eyes closed, carried by textures that take the time to exist.