The private view was the subject of much speculation. A sculpture - temporarily on view at the old collegiate church of Saint Mexme, before being permanently installed at the Museum in Chinon. It has taken twenty three years to complete.
A tiny bit of information about Emmanuel Saulnier, the creator of the piece, entitled Alter. There isn't a lot on the web that is useful. A Frenchman, born in Paris in 1952 he has been exhibiting pretty much non-stop since 1976, in Europe and occasionally internationally. He's written numerous articles and there are various videos dedicated to his work, though as yet I haven't found anything particularly useful for this blog. He has two essential concepts.The object and its movement.
A good friend of ours Marie-Michèle Esnard was heavily involved with the sculpture commission. We first heard about it a few years ago when she was still an adjoint for Culture and Heritage at Chinon. But the initial idea began back in 1988 and progressed until 1997, when it was put on hold. Not sure why. The project was then revived in 2003 and completed in 2011.
The sculpture is a memorial to the Jewish community in Chinon.There is a multi-layered historical relevance. First of all from the moment in 1321 when one hundred and sixty Jewish men, women and children were burnt to death, through the centuries to events that took place in France during the WW2. It was a delicate project to manage. There are various contexts. For example medieval and contemporary history, anthropology, culture, education and heritage.
I haven't got photos to post and there aren't any as yet on the web. I'm being totally unhelpful. All I can say is that the sculpture consisted of two long, narrow and separate pieces of glass, each about 1m80 in length, which were enclosed. One piece had been filled with water and the other with ink. Each end was sealed by a glass bubble, to contain the liquid. Each piece had an additional slim baton of glass about 1m50 in length which had been attached to each of the liquid filled tubes in the middle. They looked like exceptionally thin helicopter blades.
At present we are working our way through the brochure which consists of a series of interviews with our friend Marie-Michèle, Emmanuel Saulnier and Anastassia Makridou-Bretonneau who is the Network Director for an organisation called La Fondation de France. It was on her recommendation that Emmanuel Saulnier was commissioned.
We haven't formulated an opinion. Whilst we could see all sorts of interesting associations
it has been very difficult from our first viewing, to fully appreciate what the sculptor was trying to convey. So we need to read the brochure through cover to cover. Hopefully we'll get clued in.
We left before all the speeches and got back to Cravant in time to drop off the car and walk round to the Vieux Bourg (old Cravant) for an afternoon concert that started at five p.m. We have an old deconsecrated church in Cravant as well as as a fully operational one. The old church was playing host to a concert organised by L'Association Musiques et Patrimoine, who place music in unusual venues. The programme was a homage to Benjamin Britten and the first time we've seen the church used as a venue.
A glorious afternoon, so the sun was streaming in. The little church was full. Two musicians
a soprano and harpist Philippe Carrillo. There were other British composers included in the programme, Thomas Morley, John Dowland, all of which were sung in English and of course some fabulous pieces by Britten as well as his arrangement of compositions by Henry Purcell. Another piece they included was an arrangement Britten had made of a poem by Yeats. It was a lovely afternoon. Thoroughly enjoyable. We're going to subscribe to the Association. They've some great concerts coming up, including a Basque Choir just before Christmas.
The concert over, there was an announcement that we were all to wander down to wine producer Christel Sourdais who is about a ten minute walk from our house. We've never tasted her wines. Those of Pierre Sourdais, yes, who lives next door and is presumably a cousin or maybe a brother - not sure. So off we went. Lovely apèros. Met Christel and her husband and arranged to go back tomorrow morning (Wednesday) for a proper tasting.
Great end to a lovely day and a fab weekend.
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