Description
LOIRE LAND
“At Notre-Dame des Neiges Abbey, I imagined a white room as if it were enveloped in snow. In the Tohoku region of Japan, a kind of snow hut in the shape of a half-sphere called a kamakura is built for a festival. A bit like the image of this hut, I wanted this room to be completely white and I asked that the lighting allow you to feel the sky behind the ceiling. Thus the Loire stretches weightlessly inside the white belly of the mother. »
Kôichi KURITA
For more than two decades, the Japanese artist Kôichi Kurita has been roaming Japan and France, taking samples along the way of what we usually trample on without paying attention: the earth. Today, more than 40 samples with infinite shades of color make up its “earth library”.
TERRE LOIRE is made up of seven hundred soils taken between 2005 and 2015 from the Loire watershed and carefully sifted to reveal colors of infinite variety.
On a map of the longest river in France and its main tributaries drawn on the ground by the artist, seven hundred glass dishes contain as many samples placed at the exact location where the soil comes from. The diversity of the land is for the artist the image of the diversity and richness of humanity.
Kôichi Kurita chose the title TERRE LOIRE for its sound: during his first stays in France, when he did not speak French, this is how he transposed the word "terroir", an association naturally in his mind the land and the river.
Creation: 2018 Project management assistance: Emmanuel Landas, Atelier Muségraphique Cultures et Territoires and Astrid Hyvernat, architect
Painting: Chauvet et fils
Textile ceiling: Trend & Acoustics
Lights: TecTex
Furniture: Créa Bois
Graphic design: L’Atelier Vogue, Daphné Vurpas
This work was acquired by the Monts d'Ardèche Regional Natural Park in 2021 thanks to the financial support of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region
KÔICHI KURITA
Born in 1962 in Yamanashi in Japan where he still lives, Kôichi Kurita has acquired over the years a great reputation in his country but also in France where he has exhibited numerous times.
At twenty-four, he left Japan for the first time, undertaking a long trip to Southeast Asia and India with Kazuko, the woman who still shares his life today and accompanies him on all his projects. . This trip radically changes his view of the world. On his return, he takes a completely new look at what has surrounded him since his childhood.
His work since then has consisted of revealing the purity and beauty of this land that we usually trample underfoot. The essence and infinite variety of earth colors that he presents in magnificent color charts make us understand that each of them encloses the entire world.
NOTRE-DAME DES NEIGES ABBEY
Located at an altitude of 1000m, on the wooded high plateaus of the Vivarais mountains, the Abbey of Notre-Dame des Neiges was founded in 1850, thus reconnecting after the revolutionary turmoil, with the monastic presence established 700 years earlier in this region by the Cistercian Abbey of Mazan. This Cistercian order values manual labor, considered favorable to silence and prayer while ensuring a means of subsistence for religious people.
Kôichi Kurita's work is installed in the former cellars of the abbey, allowing its rediscovery. It is the only work on the tour presented indoors: here the landscape is an intrinsic part of the work.
Since December 1, 2022, 8 Cistercian sisters from Boulaur Abbey (Gers) have arrived at Notre-Dame des Neiges Abbey to succeed the brothers and continue the tradition of prayer and welcome of this place.
Access
Parking at the Abbey.
Entrance to the exhibition space facing the monastic shop.
The exhibition is open during the hours of the monastic shop:
Summer hours: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. / 14 p.m. – 18 p.m.
Winter hours: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. / 14 p.m. – 17 p.m. (during the October-March winter time change period).
The exhibition is open all year except from November 19 to November 25, 2022, and December 25 and January 1
Please contact the store: 04 66 46 59 02.
Closed in the morning on Sundays and feast days: March 20 (Saint Joseph) / March 25 (Ascension) / Easter: Friday open in the morning and closed in the afternoon;
Closed Sunday morning and Monday morning / June 24 (Saint Baptiste) / June 29 (Saint Pierre Saint Paul) / July 11 (Saint Benoit) / August 15 (Assumption) / August 20 (Saint Bernard) / November 1 (All Saints' Day). In winter, opening may also be subject to weather conditions.
As part of the summer PROGRAMMING, guided tours are offered by the Park with the Passeurs du PARTAGE DES EAUX on each of the works on the route (see Agenda section).
Opening
From 01 / 01 to 30 / 04.
Closed Monday and Sunday.
From 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 14 p.m. to 17 p.m.
From 01/05 to 31/10, daily.
From 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 14 p.m. to 18 p.m.
From 01 / 11 to 31 / 12.
Closed Monday and Sunday.
From 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 14 p.m. to 17 p.m.
Prices
| Free access. |
Location