2011 art season
08 april - 03 november 2011
The Grounds of the Domain are also hosting another commission awarded to Tadashi Kawamata. His project is based around a walkway suspended above the landscape and the river, enchanted huts amongst the foliage and unusual pathways on huge sheets of decking floating between the century-old trees. As for the Dutch artist herman de vries, he has chosen the Stables Riding Ring as a setting to roll out a scented carpet of real lavender. Close by, under the Stables Canopy, Dominique Bailly gives a nod to the architecture of the place itself with 5 orange-coloured spheres made of redwood, cedar and oak which mirror the colours of the bricks around them. She also invites visitors to explore the far reaches of the Grounds with an installation of woven branches near to the Water Tower. Finally, Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger, a Swiss artistic couple who are very aware of the issues of ecology and biodiversity, invent an ever-changing, surrealist soup in the Dining Room of the Princesse de Broglie, who was the last owner of the Château between 1875 and 1938. It is made up of coloured urea crystals and gradually flows out over the edges of the bowls, invading the whole table!
Alongside these installations, four major contemporary photographers are exhibiting their worlds, both natural and phantasmagoric: Gilbert Fastenaekens from Belgium, with the quasi-mystical Noces [Nuptials] amidst fascinating winter undergrowth; Helene Schmitz from Sweden, with huge and mysterious abandoned butterfly houses; Manfred Menz from Germany, with his Invisible project, strange photomontages of landscapes emptied of their architecture; Shin Ichi Kubota from Japan, with sublime cloud landscapes.