The 2020 Art Season event gives a new look to walks through the Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire's green utopia. As every year, another fifteen artists bring the grace and subtlety of their work to the Grounds and the Château. Joël Andrianomearisoa's spectacular installation leads us on a poetic meditation around the theme of day and night, through several spaces within the Farmyard. Two sculptures by Giuseppe Penone enable us to "breathe in the shadows" and go beyond appearances, whereas his sublime and previously unseen drawings, on display in the Château, reveal his obsessive relationship with trees and branches.
Painter Philippe Cognée's exhibition of around thirty large-format canvases, Paysages révélés, in the south and west wings of the Château, evoke the vibrant splendour of dense forests and wild or cultivated open spaces.
Still linked to nature, libraries, herbaria and collections all play an important role in the 2020 programme. The Château's library display Pascal Convert's disturbing crystallised books and his striking black tree stumps make their mark on the Historic Grounds, stirring up powerful echoes of remembrance.
How can you not linger in front of the simplicity of Marinette Cueco's natural masterpieces, her fantastical herbaria, or the library of marvellous plants created by Japenese artist, Makoto Azuma? Isa Barbier's dreamlike feathers, Sophie Lavaux's refined ceramics and Léa Barbazanges delicate crystals fill the shadowy corners of the Château and the Bee Barn with their translucent whiteness.
Bob Verschueren's installation L'arbre de Vie (Tree of life), Marc Nucera's organic creations, Vincent Barré's Couronnes d'arbres (Crown of branches), Wang Keping's Oiseaux (Birds) and sculptor Axel Cassel's Fumées (Smoke) and other works enhance the grounds and outbuildings of the Château, celebrating the infinite diversity of shapes, materials and possibilities derived from nature. Whether prominent or emerging artists, the exhibitors at this year's Chaumont-sur- Loire Art Season, through the connections they weave with this place, allow us to share that delicate frisson of emotion that is both rare and essential.
