Beyond the walls Orléans – Collégiale Saint Pierre le Puellier
13 September to 26 October 2014

 

Showing the work of
PIERRE ARDOUVIN, MAC ADAMS, GUILLAUME BIJL, JEAN-MICHEL OTHONIEL, EMILIE PITOISET and HENRIK PLENGE JAKOBSEN

A collaboration between the CCC Tours and the Department of Culture of the City of Orléans
With work from the “Centre national des arts plastiques” (National Centre for the Plastic Arts).

 

The exhibition borrows its form and title from the work of the artist Pierre Ardouvin: “The Empty House”. This sound installation was created for the first time at the CCC Tours in 2011, as an immense warren with shaky walls within which there resonates the mysterious sound of slamming doors. This autumn it will take over the entire space of the Collégiale Saint-Pierre-le-Puellier, becoming the centrepoint of an exhibition with multiple entrances.

 

Pierre Ardouvin was invited to select those pieces from the Collection of the ‘Centre national des arts plastiques’ which were in harmony with the world of his creation, and having affinities with artists from different times and with different origins, such as Mac Adams, Guillaume Bijl, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Emilie Pitoiset and Henrik Plenge Jakobsen.

 

The “Empty House” installation by Pierre Ardouvin provides a specific experience, influencing the way we approach the exhibition. Firstly there is a playful aspect like a fun-fair show, and moving through the warren has a very strange quality. The shaky walls appear as fragile as a house of cards. Doors slam but we know neither where nor why, making our perception of the space more complex, augmenting the feeling of disorientation and emphasizing the sensation of being in a weird dream.

 

After wandering through the maze the pieces of art reveal themselves randomly to visitors at each of the exits, like visions springing out of nowhere. All the pieces have a dream-like quality and echo the experience suggested by the Empty House installation, based on concepts of fiction, fragility and balance.  A journey through today’s art infringes on our bearings, pushing us into the nooks and crannies of our own mental topography, and drawing a place between fiction and reality, madness and stability, as in the myth of Daedalus.        

 

COLLÉGIALE SAINT-PIERRE-LE PUELLIER
Place Saint-Pierre-Le Puellier – 45000 ORLÉANS
Tuesday to Friday – 10 am to 12.30 pm and 1.30pm and 6pm.
Closed on Mondays and bank holidays.
Reception and information: Tel. 0033 2 38 79 24 85