Sometimes monumental, intriguing, mineral or flowery, abstract or symbolic, some swirling, delicate too, but always surprising, the plant sculptures are original to say the least, coming from the imagination of talented artists. Land art is always exciting and the one developed by the association ”Hors les murs” promises a cultural, rural and festive weekend.
For its third edition (the last one attracted 2,000 people), Land art exceptionally opens the doors of Creps de Saint-Raphaël to the general public, a sports training center in an 83-hectare wooded park between the sea and Estérel, on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Something to rest the body and mind.
Exhibition with an ecological dimension, in the open air
Aurélie Dumont, artist president of “Hors les murs” and her team have been working for more than a year to offer a splendid open-air exhibition to as many people as possible.
Circuit to follow on foot on the site’s tracks to admire the ephemeral works, storytelling walks in the forest, sound siesta under the pine forest, workshops for children and adults, enrich the program of this free event for all.
“In its strategy of opening up to residents, I wanted to continue the dynamic of Land art by making the site available free of charge to artists”, explains Thibaut Despres, director of Creps de Boulouris.
“I have always drawn but land art has an ecological dimension, the commitment to live closer to nature, to preserve the environment”, says Aurélie Dumont, archaeologist by profession.
“We have launched a competition with professionals in order to carry out a varied and high-level event. The Region has selected our project for its quality and is subsidizing us as well as the department and the city of Saint-Raphaël. We have chosen five professionals out of twenty applications that responded to our call for projects on the theme of interconnection. Along with the locals, 12 artists have been composing their creations since Monday, she continues. On Wednesday, two artists met the high school students of Saint-Exupéry and yesterday Thursday, the students of the colleges of Estérel and Alphonse-Karr came to discuss with the artists.
Communication between trees through roots
Francine Caccialupi, who works at Creps, collected the plants upstream and cleared the accesses. She conceptualized a sculpture on a rock slab, aiming to highlight the roots of trees in this spirit of connection. “We now know the role they play in communication between trees, emphasizes this passion. It is a real symbiotic relationship of exchanges of organic matter, nutrients and information in the face of danger. The plant world in its complexity reveals intelligence and consciousness throughout the universe.”
For her part, the fresco artist Sandrine Lorenzo dresses the pillars of the cafeteria terrace. She transforms the pilings into as many trees by coating them with lime and pigments. “Trees are the pillars of the earth, specifies this heritage painter. With paper, chalk, tracing paper, I take the imprint of the trunks to reproduce the bark, the material, the roughness. With the knife, the trowel, I paint in trompe-l’oeil”.
And here is a pine, a eucalyptus, an oak, a birch, a palm tree… Beauties to be shared in all serenity.
Land art opens the doors of Creps de Boulouris in Saint-Raphaël