For a long time, photography has been pampered on the banks of the Loire. At the beginning of the 21st century, big names (Sarah Moon, Bernard Plossu, etc.) hosted the Images au Center festival, which took over various historical monuments in the region (Azay-le-Rideau, Blois, Fougères-sur-Bièvre). And, since 2010, the Tennis court has had a decentralized branch at the Château de Tours, which “defends the dissemination of the contemporary image in all its forms” – and presents, until the end of May, a tribute to Thibaut Cuisset so magnificent that it will be worth returning to. While, at the same time, the Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire opens each winter the photo chapter of an extensive annual program. In fact, the place is especially popular for its international garden festival (which will launch its 30th edition in April) and, to a lesser extent, for its “art seasons” where nature makes contact with contemporary art. The photo, the youngest, germinated in 2018, with the Photo-sur-Loire festival – which just skipped last year because of the pandemic.
Go exploring
In the spirit of the times, more and more events include environmental issues in their cultural statements of faith. In this respect, Chaumont (like La Gacilly, in Brittany) cannot be suspected of the slightest opportunism, as the site has never deviated from course. Of landscapes, it is therefore inevitably a question here, but – with the exception of the exhibition of the duo Clark and Pougnaud, whose “imaginary garden” is adorned with idyllic tones – from a more offbeat, even alarmist, than blissful angle. The highlight of the 2022 selection – which Raymond Depardon, Edward Burtynsky and Pascal Convert complete –, Tania Mouraud is also the only guest not to have a banquet at the château, but in the outbuildings. Let’s bet, however, that she didn’t take it the wrong way, so evident is her predilection for crossroads, for more than half a century she has been avoiding taxonomy. This is confirmed here by five distinct series of large formats, covering part of the last fifteen years of his protean inspiration. Bon pied bon œil, at 80, the daughter of resistance fighters who, among others, rubbed shoulders with Joseph Beuys and Dennis Oppenheim, made a name for herself in the public space between “Black Power” and “Wall Paintings”, collaborated with the Institut of research and acoustic-music coordination and never departs from a deep social and political commitment, is here a photographer in his own right. But always in her vibrant way, as a conceptual and sound artist, as a performer, poet, videographer and DJ who likes nothing more than to explore. In this case, in front of the plastic sheets wrapping the haystacks, on which the reflection of the forest, the sky or the surrounding fields suggests an abstract pictoriality characterized by ample vertical movements (“Borderland”, 2007-2010). Or, conversely, in a bare – and horizontal – register, lost in the Nivean infinity of flat horizons, judiciously resistant to geolocation (“Nostalgia” and “Emergence”, 2019).