Make art accessible to city dwellers, by replacing advertisements with paintings! This is the principle of operation “Beauty will save the world”. An initiative from the municipality of Saint-Dizier, now duplicated elsewhere in France, such as Baulon in Ille-et-Vilaine.
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“We don’t have a museum, but we have ideas”! This could be the slogan of the town of Baulon, 2,400 inhabitants, located about fifteen kilometers southwest of Rennes.
The municipality has found a way to make art accessible. An advertising billboard, prominently displayed in the village, now displays Claude Monet’s poppies. Enough to arouse the curiosity of Marie-Renée Dutay, a neighbor.
“It’s pretty, this painting is pretty“, she exclaims in front of the panel. The slogan “beauty will save the world”, the title of a work by Dostoieveski, also written on the panel, finally convinces her. “What do you want better? Nothing!” she laughs.
“Beauty will save the world” is also the name of this initiative born in Saint-Dizier, in the East of France during the COVID crisis. Since then, it has attracted around twenty municipalities, including two in Brittany, Baulon, and Quessoy in the Côtes d’Armor. A work is also visible in Plouzané, in Finistère, but via the Bouygues Bâtiment France site.
The idea is to offer works in public space, to appreciate them, like in a museum.
“Beauty will save the world”, an operation which began in Saint-Dizier
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© Saint-Dizier town hall
In Baulon, the municipal team had the choice between 50 paintings. The color of Monet’s “Poppies” won over Lucie Saëz, deputy in charge of heritage, culture and communication. “I think she’s super beautiful, she looks really good on the town. And, a small technical detail, we had to find a landscape that went well with this color (Editor’s note: apple green, color of the panel frame) which we could not change. There, she fits in well!“
In addition to this display, works by Van Gogh, Caillebotte and Brueghuel are also scattered throughout this media library.
The citizens perhaps do not have the chance to visit Parisian museums. Finally, we had these works for three weeks almost confidentially for us.
Julie Saëz, deputy for Culture and Heritage at the town hall of Baulon (35)
The originals are exhibited in Paris but for three weeks, the people of Baulon will benefit from these copies.
“The citizens perhaps do not have the chance to visit Parisian museums, explains Julie Saëz. Finally, we had these works for three weeks almost confidentially for us“.
In total, 11 copies were made available. For each of them, the town hall spent… 56 euros.
The works are available until December 8.
