Candidate catalogue entry

L'Épopée d'Hermès

Title: Candidate · not independently reviewed

Jan Bajtlik

Artist credit: Candidate · not independently reviewed

AI-generated contextual illustration: blank wooden game tiles wind upward over an ivory miniature landscape toward an open arch, with a blank wooden die beside the start. — AI-generated contextual illustration, an original miniature route of blank wooden tiles leading to an open arch. An original scene, not an archive, an exact Hermès object or a documented artist’s work or setting.AI-generated contextual illustration for MyQuotaBag Heritage, 2026. Generated contextual asset, not a historical source or licensed archive. No Creative Commons licence assigned. Preserve the explicit generated-illustration caption beside the image.

The inherited pilot metadata remains provisional. The separately reviewed note below does not promote the catalogue record or establish a first-edition year.

Brief creation story

The story, in brief

This note has its own sources and limits. The inherited catalogue metadata elsewhere on this page remains provisional.

For L’Épopée d’Hermès, Jan Bajtlik gives a family history the structure of a board game. His project statement connects the design with Hermès’ 2021 theme, Odyssée and describes 184 spaces arranged in circuits associated with successive generations. Players advance with dice and can climb ladders, but there are no snakes to send them backwards. The narrative is conceived as a journey with rules, not simply a collection of portraits.^[1]

Bajtlik places people, objects and remembered episodes along the route. His account names artisans, family members, Jane Birkin and the window designers Annie Beaumel and Leïla Menchari among its characters. The final space launches an imagined Hermès spacecraft beyond Earth. He also describes research inside the Émile Hermès collection and the building at 24 Faubourg Saint-Honoré.^[1]

That ending matters to the artistic reading. A game that seems to organise the past ultimately refuses to stop there. History supplies the playing surface, while fantasy supplies the destination. The result invites a reader to follow connections rather than treat each small scene as an isolated emblem.

First-edition year: not established by these sources.

Sources and limits of this note

L’Epopée d’Hermès · Jan BajtlikArtist-owned project page and first-person statement · Line 13 · Lines 13–14 · Line 15 · Line 16 · Line 17

Evidence details and uncertainties

design credit · supported: Jan BajtlikdesignL’Epopée d’Hermès, Artist-owned project page and first-person statement
theme reference · supported: Hermès 2021 theme OdysséeTheme date; NOT launch dateL’Epopée d’Hermès, Line 13
game structure · supported: 184 spaces; generational circuits; dice and ladders, no backward snakesArtist description; not independent history chronologyL’Epopée d’Hermès, Lines 13–14
described figures · supported: Artisans, family members, Jane Birkin, Annie Beaumel, Leïla MenchariFigures in artist’s account of designL’Epopée d’Hermès, Line 15
described final scene · supported: Spacecraft leaves EarthImagined scene, not historical eventL’Epopée d’Hermès, Line 16
research locations · supported: Émile Hermès collection and 24 Faubourg buildingArtist self-reportL’Epopée d’Hermès, Line 17
first edition year · unknown: UnknownDesign-level first edition; no documented object, theme or adaptation date promoted to launch date

What is documented

Title: L'Épopée d'Hermès Candidate · not independently reviewed
Artist credit: Jan Bajtlik Candidate · not independently reviewed
First edition: Unknown Unknown

Reviewed product variants

No product variant is established in the reviewed sample for this entry.

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Jan Bajtlik Candidate · not independently reviewed association

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