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Donkey Stables, Farmyard Footbath and Château

Marc Couturier

"Tremblement de ciels"

published at 25/06/2018

Marc Couturier takes an altogether unique approach to the world of art.

Installation de Marc Couturier pour le Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2016 - © Éric Sander

Like a poet, he knows how to see and reveal wonders that generally escape our attention. As a tireless observer of the everyday, he notices signs and analogies that are invisible to the naked eye and deciphers, better than anyone, quite fascinating secret relationships between things.

He welcomes us to the Domaine with a “skyquake”, a strip covered in gold – the “flesh of the gods” for the artist – sculpted out of obeche wood and seemingly levitating over the lawn.

Japanese laurels hold a particular fascination for him, representing a subtle blend between the plant and sidereal worlds. Upon contemplating the stars on their studded leaves, he makes out nebulae that reflect the cosmos and claims that, with all these plant stars, there are millions of stars on Earth and, who knows, perhaps more stars down here than there are up in the sky? In this way, he says that “the sky descends to Earth and the Earth becomes the sky”.

Marc Couturier invites us to meditate on this commonplace and yet extraordinary plant at Chaumont-sur-Loire with stained-glass windows, a seat, a carpet and other fabulous signs dotted around the Farmyard, Foot Bath and Donkey Stables.

But in the Château he will also exhibit gold strips, mysterious barrels and poetic green puddles reflecting the sky, like secret mirrors revealing the starscape.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Marc COUTURIER
FRANCE
 

Marc Couturier au Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2016 - © Éric Sander

Marc Émile Léon Couturier was born in 1946 in Mirebeau-sur-Bèze in the Côte-d’Or département. He lives and works in Paris.
Couturier first made a name for himself through his work on “Levitating Rivercraft”, and it was in the early 1990s that the concept of “Redressement” came to him: under this term, he grouped together a series of works (called Acheiropoieta in Ancient Greek, i.e. not made by human hand), whose form is providentially evocative of easily identifiable figures and landscapes. He reveals them to us without altering them. A Japanese laurel leaf becomes a stained-glass window, a piece of plasterboard becomes a “Redressement”, a stroll through Amiens gives rise to “stone cabochons” – a virtual “Redressement” of architectural elements – a curved face of a tun, found in a wine storeroom in Portugal, forms a primitive sculpture, and the presentation and illumination of fragments of the curved face in “teatrini” (puppet theatres) become a series of landscape snapshots…
At the same time, he develops works made by human hand that spark contemplation or whisk us away on other journeys: Obeche “strips” covered in gold leaf are displayed, as if suspended, on walls (“Formes simples” exhibition, Centre Pompidou Metz, June 2014); the “Drawings of the third day” in lead pencil on paper or pure graphite on immense wall drawings (Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, 2012 / Palais de Tokyo, “Inside” exhibition, Oct-Nov. 2014) hark back to the creation in Genesis; the silverpoint drawings on prepared canvas or in the form of wall drawings (MUDAM, Luxembourg / “Traces du Sacré” exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, 2008) and most recently, his pastels.
Marc Couturier's work is showcased in a range of prestigious public and private collections. He has designed stained-glass windows for Saint-Léger Church in Oisilly (Côte-d’Or), a cross and halo for the chancel of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, the altar of Saint-Denis du Saint-Sacrement Church in the Marais district in Paris and the work “Tremblement de ciel” (Skyquake), 26m - 17 tons - in gold leaf) erected

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

  1. National Fund for Contemporary Art, Puteaux, France
  2. Cartier Foundation for the Contemporary Art, Paris, France
  3. Alsace regional contemporary art fund, Sélestat, France
  4. Auvergne regional contemporary art fund, Clermont-Ferrand, France
  5. Ile-de-France regional contemporary art fund, Paris, France
  6. Limousin regional contemporary art fund, Limoges, France
  7. Pays-de-Loire regional contemporary art fund, Carquefou, France
  8. Picardie regional contemporary art fund, Amiens, France
  9. Rhône-Alpes regional contemporary art fund, Lyon, France
Complete Biography

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2015
Simple Forms: Contemplating Beauty, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
L'Aleph, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France
 
2014
Formes simples, Centre Pompidou, Metz, France
Inside, Palais de Tokyo, France, France
 
2013
Musée Imaginaire de Jean De Loisy, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
 
2012
Le 3ème jour, Musée de la chasse et de la nature, Paris, France
 
2006
Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris, France
 
2005
Galerie Yves Iffrig, Strasbourg, France
 …Et le marais sanglote, Monastère royal de Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse, France
 
2004
Lithos art contemporain, Saint-Restitut, France
Galerie Stéphane Ackermann, Luxembourg
 
2002
Interface, Galerie Barnoud, Dijon, France
La Méditation des marges, Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris, France
 
2001
Secrets, Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, Paris, France
La Synagogue, Centre d’art contemporain, Delme, France
FIAC, Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris, France
 
2000
Casia Francia Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
 
1999
Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris, France
 
1998
Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris, France
 
1997
Les peintures du Mont Bégo seraient de simples lichens, Centre d’Art du Crestet, Vaison la Romaine, France
 
1996
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France
Installations extérieures des Dessins du troisième jour, réalisés pour le Temple Toji, Kyoto, Japan
Quel jour sommes-nous ?, FRAC Picardie, Amiens, France
 
1995
Temple Toji, Kyoto, Japan
Galerie Mitsuma, Tokyo, Japan
 
1994
Entrepôt Leydet, Paris, France
Centre d’art contemporain de Vassivière en Limousin, France
Galerie In Khan, New-York, USA
Galerie Claudine Papillon, Paris, France
Galerie Saint-Séverin, Paris, France
 
1993
Galerie Plessis, Nantes
Les Dessins du troisième jour, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Jouy-en-Josas, France
 
1992
Galerie Claudine Papillon, Paris, France
FRAC Alsace, Strasbourg, France
Art Frankfurt, Galerie Michel Vidal, Germany
 
1991
Galerie Michel Vidal, Paris, France
Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel, Switzerland
 
1990
FRAC des Pays de la Loire, La Garenne Lemot, Clisson, France
Galerie Andata/Ritorno, Genève, Switzerland
Centre d’art contemporain de Vassivière en Limousin, France
 
1989
Galerie Michel Vidal, Paris, France
 
1988
Le Creux de l’Enfer, Centre d’art contemporain, Thiers, France
 
1987
Ateliers en liberté, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Jouy-en-Josas, France
 
1984
Maison des Arts, Belfort, France
Musée du Prince Murat, Château de Nointel, Nointel, France
Installation de Marc Couturier pour le Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2016 - © Éric Sander
Installation de Marc Couturier pour le Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2016 © Éric Sander
Installation de Marc Couturier pour le Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2016 © Éric Sander
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Aquired by the Centre-Val de Loire Region in 2007, The Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire has become an unmissable site within the spheres of art and gardens. The triple identity of the Domaine : Heritage, art and gardens make for a unique visit within the circuit of the Loire Valley castles

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