Mexceptional events in an exceptional location in Périgueux (Dordogne). For its biannual exhibition, the association organizing cultural events has chosen the former Banque de France, apparently the largest of the Banques de France. This is where it will welcome, starting this Friday, June 28 at 2 p.m., six artists of the material, “who have never been seen here and who exhibit in the four corners of the planet.” An experience that promises to be sensory.
Helen Rietsch
The exhibition is located in the former Banque de France, closed in 2022. Here are the changing rooms, which will host an installation by Xavier Le Normand.
Stéphane Klein / SO
To discover in the basement of the old bank, glass transformed into precious stone by Xavier Le Normand.
Stéphane Klein / SO
Catia Esteves and her sculpted lines. The artist presents “Before, together and after”, an enchanted tale, in the former boudoir of the Bank.
Sensory
Stéphane Klein / SO
Pebbles or witches’ mirrors, signed Xavier Le Normand.
“The exhibition only lasts two and a half days, that’s on purpose (1). Either we’re there or we miss the event. The best part is still being there,” smiles Nathalie Legrand, bookbinder in Périgueux, organizer of the event with Philippe Glémet, restorer of antique furniture and painter.
Stéphane Klein / SO
The Japanese Miki Nakamura, based in Paris, uses mulberry fiber cooked and blanched before it is reduced to a paste.
After the Brou de Laurière hotel and the Estignard hotel, it is the former heritage fortress, built in 1878 and closed in 2022, which serves as a showcase for artists. “It looks like an island in downtown Périgueux, surrounded by greenery. Between the three places Plumancy, Magne and Roosevelt, this building is unique in its kind,” appreciates Philippe Glémet. As soon as you enter, a page of history opens up for those who knew it when it was teeming with employees. And for the others, a cinema set, almost empty, but which has kept the memory of its gleaming safes.
“I like this unusual place, this room with its raw walls that contrast with my pop-coloured pebbles,” says Xavier Le Normand, 46, a sculptor and glass artist, winner of the 2009 Bettencourt Prize in the Exceptional Talents category. In the basement, he presents luminous glass works, often inspired by the seabed or the cosmos. “When you turn it on, you’re in another world, the ultraviolet rays react with the uranium and it becomes phosphorescent,” says the artist, happy to be back in Périgueux. “I spent my adolescence there. Since then, I’ve exhibited in many countries, but never here, this is a first,” says Xavier Le Normand, who recently moved to Lanouaille.
A journey “of all materials and in all directions”
What do all the artists exhibited have in common? “Offering the evidence of beauty. We don’t need to have an artistic reference,” assures Nathalie Legrand. In the boudoir, the metal lines of Catia Esteves, 36, a Portuguese artist, catch the eye. The young woman also shows her research miniatures. One of them became “Liberdade,” in Barreiro, Portugal, an immense 600-meter iron sculpture, a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the end of the dictatorship in Portugal. “I was very touched to be able to do it, as I am from the generation that grew up in freedom. It is a line between earth and sky, between the dream of a just future and the necessary action,” explains Catia Esteves.
In the safe room, we also discover the ceramic works of Dora Stanczel, the anthropomorphic sculptures of Catherine Dix and those of two paper magicians, Jean-Michel Letellier and Miki Nakamura. A journey “of all materials and in all directions”.
(1) Price: 4 euros; free for under 18s. Opening this Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the former Banque de France, Place Franklin-Roosevelt in Périgueux.
