At Art Basel Paris 2025, the frog Kermit becomes the protagonist of an unforgettable installation on Place Vendôme. Inflatable and suspended in public space, the famous character of American pop culture appears like an uncertain dream between laughing and collapsing. At the hands of Alex Da CorteKermit transforms into an ironic and melancholy symbol of a childhood that swells and deflates under the gaze of visitors.
The work, entitled Kermit the Frog, Evensubtly recalls Duchamp and his The bride stripped naked by her bachelors, tooreplacing the bride with a giant helium balloon. Lightness becomes melancholy, purity becomes spectacle. The inspiration comes from the famous episode of 1991when during the Thanksgiving parade in New York Kermit’s balloon got caught and began to deflate, his head swinging between sky and asphalt. Da Corte captures the truth of his work in that imperfect image: a character suspended between myth and vulnerability, capable of transforming a popular memory into pure visual poetry.
