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CHARLES AND LLLLLMARIE-LAURE DE NOAILLES LLLLA LIFE AS PATRONS PERMANENT EXHIBITION VILLA NOAILLES L/ SAINT BERNARD PRESS KIT Press contact Philippe Boulet +33 (0)6 82 28 00 47 [email protected] Contact villa Noailles +33 (0)4 98 08 01 98 www.villanoailles-hyeres.com Visuels haute définition disponible en téléchargement sur l’espace presse www.villanoailles-hyeres.com (mot de passe sur demande) LLL EDITOrial LLLLLL Despite a reputation whose importance never ceases to Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles grasped that modernity increase, nobody had ever devoted an exhibition to Charles was a combination of numerous influences, a montage of forms, and Marie-Laure de Noailles, the renowned benefactors. Their seemingly unsuited towards coexisting in the same space; as name – which was associated with an impressive list of artists expressed in both the construction of the villa, or its interior and intellectuals – is present in all of the works which discuss design, which in itself arose out of a montage of furnishings that the period. Despite this, no attempt had been made to re- were the product of the most diverse trends. Consequently, they assemble and inventory the countless details and documents freely combined furniture by Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, Jean- which relate to their involvement. Ever since the inauguration Michel Frank, Charlotte Perriand, and Francis Jourdain, with of the villa Noailles arts centre, the organisation in charge of its industrial fittings, created by Smith & Co and Ronéo, alongside exhibitions had always intended to present this legacy in full view period pieces. of the contemporary exhibitions. At the same time, there was an obligation to introduce people to the history, the architecture, When Charles de Noailles offered his support to the key and the furnishings of the villa Noailles. However, it was never artists behind the periodical Documents (Bataille, Leiris, simply a matter of handing over the the keys to understanding Desnos, Limbour, and the photographer Boiffard), he intuitively this “small, interesting home to live in”, in Hyères. Instead, the grasped that future intellectual and artistic revolutions would key issue was to also show how this building and its contents fit build not only upon the legacy of Surrealism, but even more within a much greater ensemble: the extraordinary patronage so upon the founders of this periodical, which incorporated: that Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles undertook from 1923 documents, doctrines, archaeology, fine arts, ethnography, to 1970. To unveil how the villa Noailles was the stage for artistic and entertainment. In short, that modernity was an encounter encounters, exchanges, and montages. A montage of images, of influences which, through their intertwining, resulted in the ideas, periods, and legacies. Therefore, exhibiting how Charles emergence of a rhizomatic dialogue, no longer concerned with a and Marie-Laure de Noailles expanded the definition of patronage segregation of disciplines. in exploring all of its myriad forms. If this exhibition serves to place a spotlight upon that which they celebrated publicly, it also A rootstock of which Charles and Marie-Laure were not exposes all that they accomplished with the utmost discretion. just patron-spectators, but central actors instead. Thus, as Its aim is to expose the quality of this patronage and to make its already mentioned, they were in this respect at the very heart of magnitude felt, to put across the importance of the roles they modernity, or more precisely modernities, as their support did not played, in order to at last return them to their rightful position. A stop – as has often been written – on the eve of the Second World position that was central, at the heart of modernity, and that was War, but instead continued long after. These intellectual and the work of a lifetime. artistic roots extended further still as, up until the 1970s, new generations of artists invited into their close network of friends, One might suggest that the distinguishing feature of their continued to explore the paths opened up by their precursors. patronage, was its capacity to be in keeping with the tenets Hence, Mandiargues, Clémenti, and César, illustrate between of their period, their era, or to quote Walter Benjamin, of the the three of them the artistic lineage between the artists of mechanical reproduction of the art work. Charles and Marie- the 1920s, and those of the late 1960s, for whom Charles and Laure de Noailles took an interest in ethnography, music, dance, Marie-Laure de Noailles served as conveyors, always evolving and cinema, photography, and literature, clearly understanding that in pursuit of new trends. In fact, it is not unfitting to think that collage and montage represented modernity itself; that synthesis Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles chose to live not at the heart creates meaning. Brecht, Vertov, Picasso, Eisenstein, Ernst, of the avant-garde, but within the Avant-gardes themselves. Bataille, Leiris, and Rivière were – as part of their many friends and acquaintances – the artists responsible for granting meaning to the legacies of Baudelaire, Manet, Proust, and Mallarmé – the pioneers who had paved the way for montage on the eve of the 20th Century. Marie-Laure de Noailles combined images and texts in her scrapbooks, accumulated antique sculptures, works by Goya, Dali, and Rubens, snow globes, Spanish dolls, and fifty or so postcards, all on the same wall, like a Wunderkammer. A cabinet of curiosities, an experimental space, where subjects and objects are combined with one another, operating an incessant interlacing of significations. In fact, Marie-Laure de Noailles experimented for herself with this free association – as favoured by the Surrealists – whilst developing her own path too. She more or less consciously produced a quasi-systematic confrontation between high and low culture, thus granting her installations a dimension that was unique in the patronal milieu of the 20th Century; or as Benjamin wrote: freeing the artistic work from its parasitic existence in a ritual. L 3 Saint-Bernard Exhibition curation A partnership has thus been envisaged Lenders with Sèvres-Cité de la Céramique, resulting in Under the impetus of Jean-Pierre Blanc, The exhibition has been produced with the creation of vases by different designers, director of the villa Noailles, the curation for the exceptional support of the Bibliothèque in which the flowers are displayed. This idea this permanent exhibition was confided to three Nationale of France. A number of other French echoes one of the building’s raison d’être, young researchers: Raphaèle Billé, Alexandre and foreign, public and private institutions have embedded as it is within a horticulturist’s Mare, and Stéphane Boudin- Lestienne also provided their support: the Bibliothèque garden, which was the pride of Charles and du Film (Cinémathèque française), the Marie-Laure de Noailles. Scenography Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, the Annette and Alberto Giacometti Foundation, David Dubois was commissioned to The replanting of the space, devised with the Médiathèque Musicale Mahler, the undertake the scenography, taking into account Christophe Ponceau, furthers this process. Centraal Museum (Utrecht), the Nederlands the constraints of recreating “history in its own The designer Adrien Rovero was given the Architectuurinstituut (Rotterdam), the Archives home”. The project aims for the most discrete responsibility of creating a summer bar and d’Architecture Moderne (Bruxelles), the and the most respectful implementation of the musician, Sabisha Friedberg, a soundtrack Médiathèque de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, each space according to its original coherence. which accompanies the visitor during their visit. the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, The volumes and the original installations Conceived of as a permanent presentation of Condé- Nast Publications, as well as numerous must remain distinct and must not enter into a the Villa’s archives, this intervention offers private collectors. conflict with the contemporary interventions a resonant fabric of a phonetic history which which require their own identity. Welcoming coincides with the visual documentation of the The curators would also like to thank creation in all its forms, the villa Noailles period. the art-historian Monique Teunissen, for her thus becomes an example of a recycling scientific assistance. of architectural heritage, not only in its These audio remnants, derived from accessibility towards contemporary artists, but various recordings from the period, are In addition, the Agglomeration Community also in its relationship to its own past. “reanimated” in a series of compositions in the of Toulon Provence Méditerranée, the Ministry form of oral anecdotes, incantations, pauses, of Culture and Communication and the The signage, entrusted to Frédéric and lyrics. In representing that which is not contribution of the Public Commissions Office. Teschner, must accompany this scenography in seen and not written, this aural work offers The Centre National des Arts plastiques, the trying to produce the least amount of bearings a conversation with the visual works that are Conseil Régional Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur, the possible. Certain “references” to the original presented. Conseil général du Var, and the town of Hyères, usage by its inhabitants are revived, almost like have provided the project with their support. introductions to the culture of the location. L 4

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