In the beginning there is “the smell of the burning cathedral” permeating the narrow streets of the Monnaie district of Paris. Guillaume Bardet portrayed “the light, the color of the sky transformed by smoke” . The sculptor and designer from the “Arts Décor” benches is there, very close by, Monday April 15, 2019. Behind the window of the Kreo gallery, rue Dauphine, he is putting the final touches to his first major exhibition with an XXL bronze format . A biblical metaphor for the Last Supper, Jesus' last meal with the apostles. When suddenly, Notre-Dame de Paris burst into flames.
See also: VIDEO. The bells of Notre-Dame de Paris ring for the first time since the 2019 fire
The opening, which took place two days after the disaster, and this metal, solar, powerful, unalterable, linked it to the cathedral for life. Some saw it as a sign. He mentions “a little light” in him which will push him, at the beginning of 2023, to raise his hand in front of the call for tenders from the diocese of Paris. And thus take the start of the “chase” the craziest race he's ever had to run. To obtain the Grail, he “line up” and isolates himself, “six months for » as an ascetic, in his workshop at “Dieulefit”. It seems that the name of this village in the Drôme has“brought good luck, he smiled. Out of five candidates, I was the one chosen. »
“Liturgical tableware”
The town, described by the German sociologist Thomas Keller as “an oasis of peace”is a land of potters, ceramists, “of the Righteous” and a refuge for exiles during World War II. There he kneaded, in wax, the models of the new liturgical furniture of Notre-Dame. The monumental order concerns the complete renewal of the damaged parts: altar, baptistery, ambo (pulpit), cathedra (bishop's seat) and its associated seats, tabernacle where the consecrated hosts are kept. Added to it “liturgical tableware”in his words, in other words the objects of worship and sacred vessels of gold and silver: chalice, censer and pieces linked to the host (paten monstrance, ciboriums)….
