ARTEMIS & PAUL ARMAND GETTE
50 YEARS OF CONVERSATIONS
Curator : Blandine Chavanne
Postponed Exhibition
Paul Armand Gette was born in Lyon in 1927. In the 1960s, after scientific interests, he decided to devote himself to research that he placed in the space of art. This unclassifiable artist plays with labels: all his work blurs the boundaries between natural sciences, literature, poetry, mythology and art history.
The exhibition Artemis and Paul Armand Gette, 50 years of conversations is a retrospective project based on the approach of this artist who has forged a fruitful relationship with the area of Digne and the art centre for nearly 15 years.
The main theme of the retrospective is Artemis, goddess of hunting and virgin nature.
The exploration of this figure led Paul Armand Gette from antiquity to Cranach, Watteau, Duchamp, etc. The artist will endeavour to interpret Cranach’s painting The Sleeping Nymph and revisit the waterfall of the Pie Falls, the 8th stage of the Bès Valley*. A section of the exhibition will be dedicated to Artemis Theophanies but also to the botanical aspect with the oak – one of the trees dedicated to Artemis – and to the species Artemisia vulgaris and maritima.
On the inauguration day, Paul Armand Gette will propose a reading/ celebration L’aurore se rève with Wenjue Zhang as Artemis and Hervé Passamar as saxophone player.
* In 2012, as part of the VIAPAC Contemporary Art Route, Paul Armand Gette will use the 0m to mark the route From the Hair of Venus to the Splendours of the Night, a transectal proposal from Digne to Auzet and vice-versa. His studies entitled “transect” began in 1974. Fascinated by this process, he uses it meticulously as a gift from science to art (Paul Armand Gette).
With this work, he offers visitors an excursion into the Bès Valley, along a transect on which he has selected nine stations, observation points on the landscape marked by a 0m panel that highlights the beginning. This tour is accompanied by a book** whose texts written by the artist bring a poetic reading of the places of the Bès Valley, emphasizing that scientists are no less poets than artists.
The exhibition Artemis and Paul Armand Gette, 50 years of conversations in spring 2020 will be an opportunity to activate this out-of-the-wall work: we will combine this action with the launch of the Ambulo digital application, designed to improve the accessibility of the collection of artworks on the territory and produced in partnership with the Gassendi Museum and the private sponsorship of the Carasso Foundation.
On the application, the “La vallée du Bès et ses curiosités artistiques” route integrates the stopping points of Paul Armand Gette’s transectal proposal. Audio capsules invite the walker to listen to the voice of the artist who offers a unique reading of his book.
** Des cheveux de Vénus aux Splendeurs de la Nuit, proposition transectale de Digne à Auzet et vice-versa, Yellow Now editions in partnership with the Gassendi Museum and the Haute-Provence Geological Natural Reserve, 2011.