CHAUMONT-SUR-LOIRE.- In Domaine de Chaumont’s 2015 programme, fifteen or so new artists, visual artists and photographers are lending their own interpretation to the atmosphere that reigns here.

2015 marks the second phase in the work of the great Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco, who has worked on a special commission for the Centre-Loire Valley Region with new, huge and altogether unusual “phantom flowers”, inspired by the old tapestries in the long-abandoned bedrooms of the Château’s princely apartments.

Trees and their mysteries features prominently in the programme of the Chaumont- sur-Loire Centre of Arts and Nature, with the exceptional “fossilised tree” by renowned Brazilian artist Tunga - a magnificent grey and blue marbled stone trunk harking back to the dawn of time, set up in the Stables Indoor Ring - as well as the ”armour” tree knight by Finnish artist Antti Laitinen, and the majestic giant figures by Christian Lapie. No less impressive are the sublime trees of the “ordinary landscapes” by Xavier Zimmermann and his “canopy”, produced at Chaumont-sur-Loire, along with Jean- Christophe Ballot’s tree pictures.

Taking our cue from the “World Climate Conference”, two major photographers have been invited to capture the paradoxical beauty of landscapes destroyed by human action on nature. The Château Galleries therefore are displaying fascinating images by distinguished Japanese photographer Naoya Hakateyama and the sumptuous, abstract yet toxic, landscapes by American artist Edward Burtynsky. It is in this context that the highly-acclaimed Ghanaian artist El Anatsui has been invited to create an original showpiece in the Farmyard Le Fenil Gallery.

Chaumont-sur-Loire has not forgetten poetry in all this, with Gerda Steiner’s and Jörg Lenzlinger’s delirious dreamlands in the Château Chapel, Cornelia Konrads’ suspended installations in the Historical Park, the subtle vibrations of Palermitan foliage by Melik Ohanian and Gérard Rancinan’s still lifes.