Category Archives: realisations

Eulàlia Valldosera in Rochechinard

From 1972 to 1991, the whole village of Rochechinard performed a light show at the foot of its castle. This is the context in which the Rochechinard museum was created – a tangible testimony to the attachment of a population to its history. Named the Royans Memory Museum, its collection is made up of what the locals have given or loaned to it for 40 years. However, the Rochechinard museum is going through a difficult period like most ecomuseums. Its museology could appear outdated and the team has noted a drop in attendance. The association Les amis de la maison de la Mémoire (Friends of the Memory House) approached artist Eulàlia Valldosera to address the issue of transmission – with, in time, the loss of orality that was at the heart of the initial project ¬– establish a double relation, spatial – circulation in the museum, link to the site – and temporal, objects from the past to those of today.
The initial proposition was based on two elements: an author’s film to be projected continuously in the so-called “well” room and the transformation of the museum into a centre for the creation and production of memory. This second step was suspended for political reasons.
The film not only claims to document a project by a group of local people wishing to preserve their local heritage, but also aims to highlight a film object, a current event that reanimates our past, a way to reactivate the potential hidden under layers of forgetfulness and prejudice.
Before the Light articulates different types of registers, ranging from documentary to fiction, and shows the mechanisms the artist used to get there. That is to say, the film crew, their intrusion in the house, the actors’ preparation and their improvised encounters with objects that would be used as props. This film looks at the present at the same time as it recreates the past from stories that members of L’Association créatrice de la maison de la Mémoire (Memory House Creative Association), its guards and interpreters, tell the camera: The anecdotes that they recount during guided tours when the camera is in the audience. This film proposes the medium of film as a form of archive.

The book, Rochechinard, Memory of a House-Museum, published at the end of 2019, is presented as an extension of the commission, an artist’s vision of the transformation of the museum and the state of researchers’ questioning, professionals on the future of these places.
Patrons: Members of the board of directors of Amis de la Maison de la mémoire de Royans association, Alain Derbier, founder of the Rochechinard museum, Mireille Gepponi, Catherine Flament, Jeanne Charve, Josette Derbier, Roland Meunier
Funding: Fondation de France/ New Patrons Programme, former Pays du Royans Community of Communes

Avant la lumière

commanditaires : les membres du conseil d’administration de l’association des Amis de la Maison de la mémoire de Royans, Alain Derbier, fondateur du musée de Rochechinard, Mireille Gepponi, Catherine Flament, Jeanne Charve, Josette Derbier, Roland Meunier

soutien : Fondation de France / action Nouveaux commanditaires, ancienne Communauté de communes du Pays du Royans

2015

crédits : Eulàlia Valldosera

Riez / Assemble Studio

Riez is a village that comes alive mostly during the summer period and lacks a cultural life during the other ten months of the year. The patrons wish to create a space that provides a cultural life of quality for rural areas throughout the year.  

The Big Top is an artwork linked to Riez’s historical Roman heritage and is a place that will be used to host artistic and cultural events: theatre, dance, cinema, music, conferences and meals.

Its annual operating will be linked with the Cercle des Oiseaux activity in partnership with Le Moulin à Projets, an association created in 2018 to create a living space inspired by the La Borde psychiatric establishment founded by Doctor Jean Oury. Le Moulin à Projets provides a home and structure for adults who no longer need psychiatric hospitalization, but who nevertheless need support in everyday life.

If The Big Top and the Food Truck (operating in July and August for the past two years) are the structural elements of the living space, The Big Top is also a social tool for Riez’s inhabitants and neighbouring municipalities. As such, it must be mobile and easy to dismantle at a reasonable rate.

Assemble Studio responded positively to the commission. Joe Halligan and James Binning are the two architects in charge of the commission.

presentation – pdf

Patrons: Claudine Aulino, Gaëlle Duplat, Geraldine Manivet, Mademoiselle K

crédits photographiques : DR

The Durance Gravity Irrigation Canals / Élise Florenty & Marcel Türkowsky

In the Durance valley, water management has been a factor in economic development, mainly in the agricultural domain, and developments linked to this activity have shaped the landscape considerably. This shared patrimonial asset is, however, unknown to the majority of the region’s inhabitants who consider it natural and acquired, forgetting in particular that these gravity irrigation canals contribute to the aquifers used for drinking water and, locally, for watering gardens.

The challenges of the commission:
Beyond communicating the existence of a patrimony and its impact on the present, members of the CED (Durance Executive Commission) and ASA (s) (Authorized Irrigators Trade Unions) wish to highlight the positive resonance of a truly united network of professionals acting with regard to the wider public good.

The purpose of the commission is to make the entire local population ­– particularly the younger generations – aware of the joint challenges of agricultural activity, drinking water and landscape heritage. The ecological richness of this region is created by the presence of water and functioning canals: These artificial structures are continually maintained and perfected to minimize risks. In a period of climatic change, collective water management sets an example in terms of impact, whether in rural or urban areas.

Commissioners: ASA(s), Manosque and Carpentras are the active monitors of the commission with other ASA(s) volunteers, accompanied by Jerome Grangier, former president of the CED and farmer in the Bouches du Rhône, Denix Baudequin and Patrice Devos, General Engineers for bridges, waters and forests.

Montjustin / Concorde

15 kilometres from Manosque in the Luberon, the village of Montjustin has a unique history. Lucien Jacques, a friend of Jean Giono, rediscovered the village in the aftermath of the Second World War. Montjustin was revived through the poet, who settled there, drawing artists and friends in his wake.

Today, two thirds of the 52 residences are permanent. Monjustin’s story continues to be a story of friendships. Collective life exists ­– in 2013, a communal café association was created in the old school with the prospect of a cultural programme – a brewery opened and three farms are still in operation.

In 1989, the alienation of spaces considered public was badly received. In 2014, the municipality pre-empted a piece of land in the heart of the central block which adjoins the town hall to build affordable housing and recover space situated at the top of the village, near the old church that is now a location for cultural events.

With this purchase, the municipality wishes to:

– Reflect on the realization of low and medium income housing, modular housing units, and establish mutual use of a boiler room that exists on the block.

– Revitalize the space formed by the former presbytery (property of the municipality) that is currently rented out, a private dwelling, and the church. For the patrons, the approach must be exemplary: action to safeguard the spirit of the village and its collective and friendly tradition in an environment – Le Luberon – where demand for land is high.

 

Patrons: Montjustin Municipality and residents’ group.

In progress:

 

George Trakas in Lamelouze (Gard)

Du sec à l’eau (Dry to Wet)

The village of Lamelouze, situated in the Galeizon valley north of Alès, is part of the Cévennes National Park. Many professional and cultural associations are located there, with whom the municipality keeps a close partnership.

In 2009, the commune invited the Sentiers association to carry out artistic experiments on 14 hectares of communal land, situated between the 11th century church of Sainte-Cécile and the Galeizon river. The former landowner had begun a forestry operation and created an arboretum.

On the initiative of several residents, the Sentiers association and the Lamelouze Commune asked Georges Trakas to design a practical work for this space, which offers the only public access to the river. The request is part of a desire to enhance the land and its landscape, and its quality as a common space in the geographic and social organisation of the commune so that it is “recognised” by all – Lamelouze residents as well as occasional users.

After a visit in August 2015, George Trakas wrote, “I felt the project was destined for me. The commission appealed to me and it was right, because I fell in love with the locals and their history.”

During a second stay during summer 2016, acting on his initial intuitions and observations, George Trakas proposed a path to access the Galeizon as well as a simple installation between the arboretum and the river.

A study book combining texts and drawings was published by Captures éditions. It retraces the artist’s reflection – related to his career and works – his approach guided by the human dimension of places. The selection of George Trakas’ drawings and technical data for the creation of Du sec à l’eau  (Dry to Wet) offers a pragmatic and poetic approach to the commissioned work.

Le 28 mai 2019, Du sec à l’eau a reçu le prix « Initiatives citoyennes et environnementales » par le CAUE du Gard.

Daniel Buren in Toulouse

A work for the Purpan site – Hospital Complex
Toulouse

Several years’ ago, Purpan hospital began a complete overhaul of its site by opening several establishments between 1990 and 2006 and the arrival of the tramway at the end of 2010. The construction of the Pierre-Paul Riquet clinic and the Urgence-Réanimation-Médecine building is an opportunity to commission a work from an artist. The central concern is the question of hospitality. Emphasis is placed on the need to identify flows for hospital users, to organise the passage to the interior from the tramway stop and to reflect on the halls while developing a common identity for the two buildings.

After an observational phase looking at the sites and their uses, Daniel Buren chose to concentrate his intervention on the URM and PPR reception halls, and on the bridge that connects the two buildings.

10 Cadres carrés pour un patio (Ten Square Frames for a Patio), permanent in situ work, Urgences-Réanimation-Médecines building reception hall, Purpan site, Hospital complex, Toulouse university, 2013-2015

Inside the patio, three square three-dimensional frames spread out from the street-side façade, accelerating the perspective. Blue, yellow, red – each one is connected to a second on an open angle equal to that formed by the two glass walls on the street side (hall entrance) and corridor side (access to other services). The four frames opposite the windows are projected and laminated onto the windows with white adhesive strips.

Le Puits de lumière en 5 couleurs et sur 5 étages (Skylights in 5 Colours and on 5 Floors), permanent in situ work, Pierre-Paul Riquet reception hall, Purpan site, Hospital complex, Toulouse university, 2013-2015

The square space inside the entrance hall with its series of windows is worked in volume: Blue, yellow, orange, red and green tablets, punctuated by white stripes highlight the square form and follow one another up to the ceiling of this empty space. These five frames, superimposed on one another, like light boxes (each illuminating the upper box), become the main lighting for the Pierre-Paul Riquet Hospital entrance hall.

Bayadère pour 3 couleurs et 2 bandes blanches (Bayadère for 3 Colours and 2 White Stripes), permanent work in situ, bridge – Hospital Pierre-Paul Riquet / Urgences-Réanimation-Médecines building, Purpan site, hospital complex, Toulouse University, 2013-2015

The bridge that links the Emergency Services building to the Medical Imaging Department (situated at the heart of PPR) is used to indicate the flux between the two spaces. The windows are entirely recovered with self-adhesive paper and divided into sequences of 43.5cm width, successively blue, yellow and red, then composed of 5 alternating strips (white and transparent) of 8.7cm.

This large frieze diffuses its coloured light into the passage used exclusively by patients and caregivers. It is visible from outside day and night (on the tramway side and at the back of the buildings) like a kind of luminous horizontal lantern.

Patrons: Purpan Site (CHU), Toulouse

Funding: Fondation de France New Patrons Programme, Hospital Complex, Toulouse.

Photo-souvenir : 10 Cadres carrés pour un patio, travail in situ permanent, hall d’accueil du bâtiment Urgences-Réanimation-Médecines, site Purpan, Centre hospitalier universitaire de Toulouse, 2013-2015. Détail. Septembre 2015. © Daniel Buren/ADAGP, Paris. Photo : Phoebé Meyer

Photo-souvenir : Le Puits de lumière en 5 couleurs et sur 5 étages, travail in situ permanent, hall d’accueil de l’hôpital Pierre-Paul Riquet, site Purpan, Centre hospitalier universitaire de Toulouse, 2013-2015. Détail. Septembre 2015. © Daniel Buren/ADAGP, Paris. Photo : Phoebé Meyer

Photo-souvenir : Bayadère pour 3 couleurs et 2 bandes blanches, travail in situ permanent, passerelle hôpital Pierre-Paul Riquet / bâtiment Urgences-Réanimation-Médecines, site Purpan, Centre hospitalier universitaire de Toulouse, 2013-2015.
Détail. Septembre 2015. © Daniel Buren/ADAGP, Paris. Photo : Phoebé Meyer

 

 

 

Élisabeth Ballet, Pilat Regional Nature Park

Situated in the Pilat Regional Nature Park near Saint-Etienne, the town of Bourg-Argental has retained the imprint of a textile activity developed there since the 16th century. Everything needed for textile production was in evidence – milling, warping, weaving, braiding, ribbon making; buildings linked to the industry made a strong mark on the landscape.

The project, initiated by the town of Bourg-Argental, is part of the Industrial Landscape programme unfolding in the four regional nature parks of Pilat, Monts-d’Ardèche, Lorraine and Vercors. Residents and elected officials wished to highlight the industrial past and make the conscious and unconscious traces of the textile industry legible. It is a question of addressing spaces created by the destruction of certain buildings in line with architecture still in existence.

Élisabeth Ballet initially conducted a meticulous investigation to collect data on weaving and ribbon making, but also to reread, spatially, Bourg-Argental’s industrial history. The places she identified could not be used (either inaccessible or decreed flooded, by the state), so in 2013, the commune invited her to invest in a central space that was the former site of the Jarrosson textile factory.

Élisabeth Ballet’s work takes shape in this space and goes beyond, including a trail that retraces the town’s textile activity, as well as a book.

  1. Jarrosson Square: finding a purpose.

The first thing to do is to clear the original factory space by removing everything that obstructs the square, and reveal the original gate and surrounding wall at the bottom of the garden. “Then the square will turn into a pedestrian agora, the garden part raised like a stage, opens onto the town and is visible to everyone.”

On the ground, granite paving will depict weaving in motion across its entire length, then continue past the route nationale, to suggest that weaving gave work to the whole town with some fifty factories and studios dedicated to textile.

  1. The trail through the town.

With the help of Mr. Michel Linossier, former weaving combs manufacturer, Élisabeth Ballet located a large section of the missing workshops street by street, and drew a map to guide the visitor on his/ her journey through the town. An enamelled sign serves as a landmark at each site.

  1. The Book

Because a physical artwork cannot reveal the work of research, Élisabeth Ballet wanted to produce a book to restore the profile of weaving spaces. “It will be divided into one part for drawing, another for the archives and interviews.  I have collected instruction books, sample books and more technical archives on the practice of weaving….My objective is to show, through the progressions of words, a changing profession, through images, which is emblematic of places and practices in a factory that was witness.”

Patrons: The commune of Bourg-Argental, represented by mayor Stéphane Heyraud and deputy mayors.

Funding: Pilat Regional Nature Park, within the European LEADER programme (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development), Fondation de France /New Patrons, the town of Bourg-Argental

In Progress

 

 

Élisabeth Ballet, Monts d’Ardèche Regional Nature Park

You Will Tell Me

You Will Tell Me is Élisabeth Ballet’s response to a commission awarded by elected officials and residents of the former Eyrieux-aux-Serres Community of Communes and the Monts d’Ardèche Regional Nature Park. Today this region, located in the middle range mountain zone, has more than twenty abandoned milling and weaving workshops and the question of their reclassification is recurrent. The Community of Communes wished to reflect on the presence and transformation of this industrial landscape and to address the social dimension of textile work.

In Saint-Sauveur-de-Montagut, the presence of the Moulinon on the banks of the River Eyrieux is strong evidence of local working history. Élisabeth Ballet created a “listening chamber” in the old station stop across the river opposite the old mill. This shelter is painted blue and is preceded by a terrace equipped with two red-brown concrete benches. Inside, a window fitted with a railing was broken open to offer a frontal view of the Moulinon. An audio montage is broadcast in various places to multiply listening points.

“The distance between the factory that we will admire and the site itself,” writes the artist, “will allow the creation of an intangible work.” In the listening chamber, the sounds of the river, the turbine and of nature mingle with noises of machines and voices of factory workers. “These voices invite us to take time to listen to stories of work accomplished here – its price, its joys and sorrows – and thus learn about the workers’ skills.”

press release, May 2014 – pdf

Patrons: elected officials and residents of the former Eyrieux-aux-Serres Community of Communes and the Monts d’Ardèche Regional Nature Park.

Funding: Monts d’Ardèche Regional Nature Park as part of the European LEADER programme (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development), Fondation de France / New Patrons, Rhône-Alpes Region, former Community of Communes Privas Centre Ardèche.

2014

Photographic credits: Phoebé Meyer

Susanne Bürner, Vercors Regional Nature Park

The Crossing

The Isère and the Work:

The communes on the left bank of the Isère river are situated within Grenoble’s urban expansion and on the historic route linking the Alps to the Mediterranean. Real estate pressure due to proximity to the Grenoble agglomeration and the grouping of communes into communities made these villages reposition themselves in order to preserve their specificities.

In the context of the region’s growing urbanisation, the old industrial sites are part of common imagination in connection with local working class history forged over several generations. Susanne Bürner was invited to take note of this observation. Two emblematic sites were located – the old royal Saint-Gervais canon foundry and the Echaillon quarries.

Susanne Bürner did not want to limit her research to the history of the two communes however, she immersed herself in local geography, visited many sites and collected stories as well as rich iconography on the industrial history of the two banks of the Isère. During the course of her reflections, the river’s role appeared strategic – it facilitated the circulation of goods, people and labour with bridges, boats, rafts and traps. Its strong presence at the foot of the Vercors hills always impresses the traveller. It is also through the eyes of a foreigner, in this case a young boatman, that Susanne Bürner presents fiction in the form of a film, The Crossing. The publication of two leperellos, L’Isère and Le Travail, (The Isère and The Work), combine images, archival drawings and the artist’s own photographs.

invitation, Decembre 2014 – pdf

La Traversée

 

L’Isère and Le Travail (The Isère and The Work)

Artist’s edition, 600 examples

Width of leperello when opened out: 104 x 10.4cm

10 euros for the set

Patrons: Saint-Gervais Commune represented by Madame Faure, the mayor, members of the SPIA association – Sauvegarde du patrimoine industriel d’autrefois (Safeguarding the Industrial Heritage of Yesteryear) and the Vercors Regional Nature Park

Funding: Vercors Regional Nature Park within the Framework of the European LEADER programme (Fonds européen agricole pour le Développement rural), Fondation de France / New Patrons Programme

Film credits: Susanne Bürner, photographic credits: édition Phoebé Meyer

2014

Susanne Bürner, Lorraine Regional Nature Park

Euville

The Euville quarries on the edge of Meuse are an emblematic part of Lorraine. The exploitation of limestone until the beginning of the 20th century left many traces: vestiges of industrial exploitation, buildings and tools from different eras, remains of the old quarrymen’s village.

Owned by the Pays de Commercy (group of communes), the site is in the process of becoming a major tourist attraction site. The patrons wanted the creation of an enduring work that could encourage reflection on the quarry landscape’s transformations.

Avoiding an over-documentary restitution of places and traces of life, Susanne Bürner prefers to underline the mysterious aspects and the fictional potential. Her proposal takes shape over three media: a book, a film and photographs.

The book, Euville tackles the human side of quarry history. The first section presents photographs taken by the artist inside old extraction galleries, followed by texts by Pierre Briot and Jean-Paul Streiff retracing daily life in a quarry. It includes images of graffiti drawn by workers on the walls of the galleries, accompanied by short stories collected by Susanne Bürner.

The film Pierre et Poussière (Stone and Dust) dwells on the imaginary dimension of the place – we follow two teenage girls who explore landscapes structured by previous activities, but also sites that are on the verge of disappearing: the café, the old washhouse….

The Cavaliers (The Cavaliers) photographic prints show the evolution of the landscape since the cessation of activity and the extent of vegetation. Two images in black and white punctuate a series that through its presentation suggests the story of a ramble. The eye discovers, over points of view, clues, reminiscent in small touches, of the industrial past. However doubts may persist about the origin of the landscapes.

press, october 2012 – pdf

Pierre et Poussière

Les Cavaliers

Euville

Captures éditions, en partenariat avec le Vent des forêts—espace rural d’art contemporain et l’office de tourisme du Pays de Commercy

commanditaires : Office de tourisme et Communauté de communes du Pays de Commercy

soutien : Parc naturel régional de Lorraine dans le cadre du programme européen LEADER (Fonds européen agricole pour le Développement rural), Fondation de France, DRAC Lorraine, Région Lorraine, Département de la Meuse

2012

crédits photo/vidéo Susanne Bürner, Phoebé Meyer