What if Land Art moved to Impressionist country, a place that inspired many artists such as Monet, Renoir or Braque? For this first edition of the “Grandeur Nature” festival, Varengeville-sur-Mer highlights nature with a Land Art course created by four artists as part of the “Normandy Impressionist” program.
It is under the leadership of two exhibition curators, Sylvie Cazin and Emmanuelle Halkin, that this circuit of installations scattered throughout the village is organized. The two co-curators selected those which corresponded the most to the established specifications which notably included the Varengeville potential, the color, the landscape in which the work is inscribed or the choice of materials used. The power of the Land Art movement is undoubtedly its ephemeral side. This type of art does not originally exist to be sold, but to be experienced.
“Checkerboard” by Michèle Trotta
Destined to disappear over time, Michèle Trotta’s installation “Damier” is a collection of pieces of nature meticulously placed at the foot of a flowering pear tree. Each plot is an accumulation of elements that identify this territory between land and sea. From cuttlefish to flax, through mushrooms and rotten apples, Michèle Trotta reconstructs another syntax that echoes the haikus of Japan, a country of great influence for her. “I don’t know what nature is. It’s too big for me! “ . She questions our relationship to nature through Arte Povera, her color palette is formed during her walks where she gleans what is almost invisible to others.
Sylvain Ristori’s “Impressionist Star”
Less perishable, “Astre Impressionniste” by sculptor Sylvain Ristori stems from a process of transformation. Its sphere in solid oak 3m in diameter, placed in a pasture, is built on a structure of threaded rods. It is a former 7m shrimp boat, “torn” with a mechanical shovel, which was used to carry out his work. “It has sailed to feed many people and symbolizes the poetic dimension of the journey of matter. ”
“Light” by Thierry Teneul
Each artist chose his location. Thierry Teneul has been speaking in different places for over thirty years. He decided to assemble “Lumière”, a sun made from lime tree branches recovered after the town hall had those in the town pruned, on the side of a road. In memory of a solar eclipse which he attended in Varengeville and in homage to the suns of Monet, the artist sought the ideal spot to observe the sunset of the star. “The game consists of waiting for the sun to descend through the sculpture. “
“Undefined limits” by Erick Fourrier
Somewhat outsider, Erick Fourrier imagined “Limites indefinites”, a frame measuring 6m by 4m made of wooden pallets and covered with forms of burnt wood earthworms. Erected opposite the marine cemetery in which Braque is buried, this setting is an allusion to those who made the reputation of the town. “When I work on the very recognizable delivery pallet, I do not simply seek to demonstrate that by working with waste, we develop green driving, I leave the viewer the possibility of reading the questions of a world in perpetuity. movement. “ Visitors can climb in this setting or admire two landscapes, one facing the sea, the second facing the land.
These works, filled with poetry, respond to the diversity of the territory of Varengeville and reveal the beauty of our increasingly threatened world. These Land artists create for everyone in and with nature.
Cecile Papapietro-Matsuda
Grandeur Nature Festival, until October 24, 2021 in Varengeville-sur-Mer (Seine Maritime)
