The Salvare Compani association financed the casting of two bells which will go to the very top of the belfry. Two artists from La Rochelle worked on the ornamentation of one of them with strong symbols, in homage to the sea and its living things.
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In a few months, the bells of the belfry of the Saint-Sauveur church will ring out again. A project possible thanks to the Salvare Campani association and the artists Anne Sarrazin and Jackie Groisart.
This pouring of wax into a silicone mold carried out by the visual artists will make it possible to create the ornaments of the future bell.
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© Pierre Lahaye – France Télévisions
The Rochelais were chosen to decorate Anne Nicolas, one of the new bells of the Saint-Sauveur church. “So there was a first modeling that was done: a bas-relief in clay. Then, it was molded in silicone. This mold will allow us to make a wax casting. Then, it will be able to be a part decor since we are going to stick on the false bell”,explains the visual artist, Anne Sarrazin.
An ancestral know-how
This false bell made of wax is currently resting in Normandy, in the famous foundry of Cornille-Havard where the bells of Notre Dame de Paris were designed. SOn site, manufacturing has remained unchanged since 1865. First, the artists stick their ornamental frescoes on the wax bell, a thin layer of clay is then applied over the whole to design a mold before the casting planned for the month of January.
Overview of the bell in progress where you can see symbols of La Rochelle such as the Lantern Tower.
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© Pierre Lahaye – France Télévisions
This project would not have been possible without the financing of the Salvare Campani association and its call for donations launched on December 14, 2023. “Our Anne bell is dedicated to the sea and its living things, which means that it rings according to its symbols. It is important for us that it represents all the symbols that we wanted to put there” , says the president of the association, Gérard de Monteil.
Among these symbols, the artists have prepared a fresco echoing the maritime history of La Rochelle: from shipwrecked people to marine animals, including certain animals like the Lantern Tower.
“What I like is telling stories. There’s a little comic book side to what I do. U“a bit like a sort of ex-voto or old paintings, when there were shipwrecked people who had been saved anyway, then they thanked their patron saint”. evokes the artist Jackie Groisart.
The fresco echoes the maritime history of La Rochelle.
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© Pierre Lahaye – France Télévisions
A three-meter-long fresco on which the artists had carte blanche to let their imagination speak. “CWhat was important were the two levels of narration. The first with the characters and we created links with the top frieze and the bottom one like the whale which makes the link with the two levels”shows Anne Sarrazin.
In total, the association spent 86 000 euros for the Anne Nicolas bell alone. It will soon be accompanied by a second bell also financed by the association and according to the president, it will ring before Easter.
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