Since fall 2023, visual artist Thomas Teurlai has been in residence in Mayenne. Joël Balandraud, vice-president of the departmental council, recalls that the aim of “this first biannual residency was to support contemporary creation by bringing artists to Mayenne”.
“A little shock”
Launched at the start of 2023, the call for projects received “around a hundred applications from all over the world”. In April 2023, four selected artists presented their projects. “Thomas Teurlai’s was a bit of a shock and resonated well with our sites,” the Robert-Tatin museum in Cossé-le-Vivien, the Jublains archaeological museum and the Château de Sainte-Suzanne.
Supported by the Department and Mayenne culture, the residence amounts to “€54,800, with €16,000 grant from the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs” and as many from the Pays de la Loire region.
A machine, graffiti samples and sarcophagi
A graduate of Fine Arts from Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) and Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) and based in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), Thomas Teurlai has “jumped at the chance”, interested in “the heritage dimension” of the project. On the other hand, “I saw that there was a high school with a 3D robotics section”, discipline that “I practice as a dilettante”.
The artist worked with students from the Pierre-et-Marie-Curie high school, in Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne. Objective : “build a machining machine on a wheel to create mandalas”, ceremonial Buddhist paintings. The public will be able to discover it at the Tatin Museum, from June 15 to December 31, 2024.
In Sainte-Suzanne, from June 15 to September 22, Thomas Teurlai presents the work Lootsthe result of a collaboration with the visual artist Ugo Schiavi, made “graffiti samples”.
Over the same period, in Jublains, casts of concrete refrigerators will be presented, becoming “enigmatic objects” reminiscent of sarcophagi.
From June 15, 2024, “After the Rain” exhibition; openings at Robert-Tatin on June 15 at 5 p.m.; information on https://mayenneculture.fr/
