Bernay. Les Ecstasies: we do not come back unscathed from this trip

It is almost 6 p.m. on Saturday July 2, 2022. A few privileged people are waiting patiently in the abbey church to be able to discover Ecstasies ofErnest Pignon-Ernestthe exhibition event organized at Bernay (Eure)whose Norman Awakening is a partner.

A first group of about fifteen people, where we come across Hervé Morin, Marie-Lyne Vagner and Nicolas Gravelle, has already been able to access the room protected by a curtain. But nearly twenty minutes after their departure, none of them have returned. Ernest Pignon-Ernest has fun in front of the guests: “I can’t tell them to leave, I can’t do that, smiles the plastic artist, precursor of urban art in France. They must be levitating. The words are not too strong.

When finally comes the hour of contact with the life-size drawings of these women in love with Christ, it is impossible not to feel trouble and emotion. First plunged into darkness, around a pool specially created for the occasion, the mystics light up one after the other. “Bon voyage”, wishes Mohamed Khattabi, collaborator of Ernest Pignon-Ernest.

“It’s absolutely magical and exceptional”

Telephones are brandished, flashes crackle, whispers are heard, no spectator dares to speak aloud, as if this sacred moment should not be disturbed. And it is no longer clear whether we are admiring Marie Madeleine, Hildegarde de Bingen and Thérèse d’Avila, or whether we marvel at the shapes of the abbey church reflected in the water, monument steeped in history and spirituality as we had never seen it before. The ambition of Ernest Pignon-Ernest then bursts into everyone’s eyes: to make this thousand-year-old place a work of art.

“It’s absolutely magical and exceptional,” enthuses Hervé Morin, who delayed his departure on vacation by a day so as not to miss this moment. The President of the Region was able to appreciate this “rather complicated relationship” between the sensuality and the suffering contained in the Ecstasies, and this look brought to change according to the light.

“We must now tell all Normans: there is David Hockney in western Normandy and Ernest Pignon-Ernest in eastern Normandy, we are lucky to have two great talents at the same time”

“It’s a landmark moment,” assures Marie-Lyne Vagner. Our abbey church, which has known many lives, had never before been used for such an artistic installation. As local elected representatives, we have our tastes and our preferences, but we must work in favor of diversity and accessibility in order to be at our level as go-betweens and facilitators. »

“The dream has come true”

How fortunate, indeed, for the city of Bernay to be able to enjoy this beauty, admired in the past in Naples, Paris or Avignon.

Lucky, but also a lot of work to ensure that the world-renowned artist exhibited his mystics for two months in the Eure sub-prefecture. “The dream has come true”, breathes the writer Pierre Louis Bass, friend of Ernest Pignon-Ernest for more than twenty years, in a crowded village hall on Saturday evening. It has been a long journey since the first phone call, exchanged five years ago, when the former journalist promised the artist that the abbey church of Bernay is “made for the vertigo of saints”.

The adventure could begin. The association A l’air libre, of which Pierre-Louis Basse and Christophe Maréchal are the vice-presidents, was founded, volunteers did not count their hours and the financial and material support of the communities was essential. Whether it’s the president of the region, the mayor of Bernay or the president of the intercom, everyone was won over by the project. “All this beauty and vertigo should be shared by as many people as possible”, comments the writer based in Bernay, referring to the series of events around the exhibition intended to bring people together and federate.

Like the students of Boismard high school, de Brionne, who could not believe their eyes to be able to participate in the installation of the works. Or this football match scheduled for Sunday July 10 between the French team of writers and a team from SC Bernay.

“Salute the freedom of women”

“This project would not have existed without Pierre-Louis and his pugnacity”, pays tribute Ernest Pignon-Ernest, in a speech filled with humility.

“One thing seemed very important to me in this project: it is that it affirms that art and creation are not in bubbles or parentheses and only exist insofar as they resonate in society. »

These eight great mystics upset the thinking of their time and all affirmed an immense freedom. Les Ecstasies, exhibited at Bernay, is also “a way of saluting this freedom of women in their bodies, which is seriously threatened today”, emphasizes Ernest Pignon-Ernest, “this little big man”, as affectionately described Pierre-Louis Basse.

Until September 18, by entering the abbey, everyone can approach the “sighs of stars”, in the words ofAndre Velter, Goncourt prize for poetry, which has accompanied the work of Ernest Pignon-Ernest for several decades. The talent, the singular gaze of Ernest Pignon-Ernest “transcended this place to take it to a new dimension, perhaps that of the 7^e sky”, observes Marie-Lyne Vagner.

The Ecstasies are a journey. And we don’t come back unscathed.

The Extases exhibition is open to the public from July 2 to September 18, 20222 at Bernay Abbey, on the following days and times: Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., except Thursday, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.; closed on Mondays. Admission €5 for residents of the territory of the Intercom Bernay Terres de Normandie. €10 for those outside the territory. Free for under 18s and students.

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