Transhumance

Throughout the summer the Centre international d’art et du paysage of Vassivière Island (CIAP) and the Centre national des arts plastiques (National Centre for Visual Arts, Cnap) will be presenting an exhibition/trail extending outwards from the art centre and its Sculpture Wood to neighbouring municipalities. Titled Transhumance, this venture into unification of a changing territory offers strollers the chance to soak up the history of the various villages while highlighting the role of public art in the rural context.

Made up entirely of works from the Cnap collection, with special emphasis on outdoor pieces, Transhumance is divided into four sections:

A trail linking rural municipalities near Lake Vassivière, including Beaumont-du-Lac, Gentioux-Pigerolles, La Villedieu, Nedde, Peyrat-le-Château and Saint-Amand-le-Petit, between the Creuse and Haute-Vienne départements in the Nouvelle Aquitaine Region.

In a public-space dialogue with the scenic, architectural and cultural heritage of these villages, the exhibits interact with their setting, altering our point of view in a way that inevitably transforms each place’s space, history and identity.

In addition, in a rural area too rarely exposed to contemporary creative input, they also act as cultural mediators, spotlighting nationally and internationally known artists and presenting new aesthetic concepts and artforms that reflect the diversity of the Cnap collection: monumental sculptures, sound and video installations, procedural art, vegetal works and more.

Organised in conjunction with the municipal councils, the venture involves some residents in its design, implementation and mediation. Generating interchange between artists, the authorities and citizens, the works thus become a vector for social and political bonding.

Works by Hicham Berrada, Olivier Cadiot, Michael Dans, Édith Dekyndt, Mona Hatoum, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Anne de Sterk and Lois Weinberger

A group exhibition at the art centre on Vassivière Island further reflects the public role of art in today’s society. How does art mobilise us as citizens actively committed to the world we live in? This exhibition foregrounds the political, participatory aspect of the work of art and the different ways it can interact with the visitor.

This is also an opportunity to rediscover an emblematic late 1980s work by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Bernard Joisten, Pierre Joseph and Philippe Parreno: the outdoor installation Vidéo Ozone, which is being specially reactivated on the island for the 34th edition of European Heritage Days on September.

Works by Siah Armajani, Maja Bajevic, Patrick Bernier & Olive Martin, Simon Boudvin, Luis Camnitzer, Gilles Clément, Pierre Coulibeuf, Yona Friedman, Dora Garcia, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Marie-Ange Guilleminot, Martin Le Chevallier, Enzo Mari, Roman Ondak, Dominique Petitgand, Roman Signer, Georges Tony Stoll and Lois Weinberger

Still on Vassivière Island, two new procedural art pieces commissioned by the Cnap are being premiered in the Sculpture Wood, already home to some 60 works (five of them on long-term loan from the Cnap). Liliana Motta’s beautifully subtle landscape composition and Reto Pulfer’s heavenly-body installation fit naturally with Vassivière’s identity as a singular blend of industrial site and nature reserve.

Every night, Radio Vassivière will be broadcasting a different sound work from among those commissioned by the Cnap from Radio France Culture’s Atelier de Création Radiophonique.

Works by Pierre Alferi, Laurie Anderson, Biosphère, Boris Charmatz, Édith Dekyndt, Aurélie Dubois, Philippe Katerine et Pierre Bondu, Jonas Mekas, Robert Milin, Melik Ohanian, Lee Ranaldo and Leah Singer, Simon Ripoll-Hurier, Anne de Sterk, Chloé Thévenin, Georges Tony Stoll, Véronique Verstraete, Lawrence Weiner

Between October 13–15, 2017 a symposium on public art in the rural context will look back over the history of sculpture parks and consider how they are likely to evolve. Participants will include Benoît Antille, José Roca, Liliana Rojas Sánchez, Elke Roloff, Martina Sabbadini, Natsuko Uchino, Philippe Bettinelli, Valérie Cudel and François Hers.

Curator: Marianne Lanavère
Associated curator: Sébastien Faucon

More information:
www.ciapiledevassiviere.com
www.radiovassiviere.com
www.cnap.fr