NOUVELLE-AQUITAINE.- The Art Center of Chasse-Spleen Castle will be hosting until October 1, 2023, under the curatorship of Didier Arnaudet, several lightings from the exhibition "THE ADVANTAGE OF CLARITY" in its spaces, as well as small sculptures and drawings, and artistic forms also appreciated by artist Michel Verjux.

Michel Verjux has been using lighting as a physical tool for almost 40 years. In this way, he summons up an elementary visual language, made up of projected, directed, adjusted and focused light, in a space to be invested and described, in a given time that allows us to see a certain number of elements making up the environment.

For the artist, to light is to make appear, to pass from invisibility to visibility, from anonymity to particularity. It is also to bring the visitor to play the game that he proposes to him, even to solicit him on the fact of knowing until where he can or wants to play this game.

Collectors for many years, Celine and Jean-Pierre Foubet decided in 2018 to open a contemporary art center on their estate of Château Chasse-Spleen in Moulis-en-Médoc. They quickly saw this place as a space for temporary exhibitions open to the public, a way to share their love of art like sharing a fine wine.

Open today visitors, the art center also offers an even greater immersion thanks to three guest rooms, within the chartreuse itself. This possibility of living a few days in the middle of the works themselves is an original approach that will leave you with a very special memory afterwards.

In the garden, works of art welcome visitors: paintings by Felice Varini, a pair of giant boots by Lilian Bourgeat, sculptures by Otani, Tschiember, Labat or Gavinet...

Michel Verjux was born in 1956 in Chalon-sur-Saône, Burgundy. After studying at the University, then at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Dijon (1977-1982) and practising action and performance (1979-1983), he favoured lighting as a physical tool and used an elementary visual language made up of projected, directed, adjusted and focused light. This choice of lighting did not prevent him from also developing various related productions (drawings, sculptures, texts).

PLAYING WITH LIGHT TO SHOW

Thus, his works propagate and order light in a space to be invested and described, in a given time, and allow us to see a certain number of elements that make up the environment. They first appear as images or geometric forms inscribed in the places invested, but they also impose themselves as clues to the idea, the place, the route, the language and the breathing of the exhibition.For Michel Verjux, lighting is to make appear, to pass from invisibility to visibility, from anonymity to particularity. For Michel Verjux, lighting is to make appear, to move from invisibility to visibility, from anonymity to particularity. It is also to bring the visitor to play the game he proposes, and even to solicit him on the fact of knowing up to what point he can or wants to play this game.

THE ADVANTAGE OF CLARITY

From May 4 to October 1, 2023, the Chasse-Spleen Castle Art Centre will host several lightings in its spaces, as well as small sculptures and drawings, which are "reduced to the necessary and sufficient minimum, and are events, acts and signs". They provoke and question our sensitivities and perceptions, our expectations and our availability, while inciting us to experience our presence as visitors and viewers, thus inviting us to take into account the full extent and singularity of "the advantage of clarity".

ABOUT THE DOMAINE CHÂTEAU CHASSE-SPLEEN

The Chasse-Spleen vineyard enjoys international renown both for its evocative name - which has contributed to its worldwide success - and for the quality of its wines made from the Garonne gravel terroir and dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon. Owned by the Merlaut family since 1976, Céline Villars- Foubet took over the reins in 2000, with her husband Jean-Pierre Foubet.Collectors for many years, Céline and Jean-Pierre Foubet decided in 2017 to open a contemporary art centre on their estate in Moulis-en-Médoc. A daring initiative that is in line with their hedonistic and generous approach: to share the emotion and pleasure that works of art give them, just as one shares a good wine.Professor Denis Dubourdieu used to say that "Wine is an aesthetic and gourmet project", I like to add that "Art is an aesthetic and intellectual project", recalls Jean-Pierre Foubet. Today, a space of its own is open to contemporary art for temporary exhibitions on more than 300 m2 on the ground floor of the 18th century chartreuse adjoining the château, which has been completely renovated by two Bordeaux architects, Céline Petreau and Oriane Deville. Céline and Jean-Pierre Foubet invite the artists they like to exhibit their work from May to September, and invite outside curators to take part in the exhibition. In between projects, the chartreuse presents a display of works from their own collection.