Long Press Release Opening Le Château Rentilly 5

Opening of Le château de Rentilly

A project by Xavier Veilhan, artist Bona-Lemercier, architects, Alexis Bertrand, scenographer

Saturday 22 November 2014

Le château de Rentilly (September 2014) Photo : Martin Argyroglo. © Bona-Lemercier/Alexis Bertrand/Xavier Veilhan (ADAGP, Paris, 2014)

Contacts: MYRA, Yannick Dufour et Magda Kachouche + 33 1 40 33 79 13 - [email protected]

Sommaire

• Press release for Le château de Rentilly opening p. 3

• Press release for the exhibition Explore. p. 4

• Extracts of interviews with the different actors involved in the project p. 5

• Biographical notes Xavier Veilhan, Bona-Lemercier, Alexis Bertrand p. 8

• The Communauté d’agglomération de Marne et Gondoire p. 9

• The frac île-de-france p. 10

• The Fonds régionaux d’art contemporain / The commande publique p. 11

• The Parc Culturel de Rentilly in a few dates p. 12

• Images available for the press - château p. 13

- exhibition Explore. p. 16

• Notes for editors p. 18

Opening of Le château de Rentilly

On 22 November 2014, Le château de Rentilly will re-open on a brand-new scale.

Now completely enveloped in stainless steel plates, the building will act as a mirror for the beautiful park in which it stands. The metamorphosis was presided over by internationally renowned artist Xavier Veilhan, architects Bona- Lemercier and set designer Alexis Bertrand. This new contemporary art space, a project carried out by Communauté d’agglomération de Marne et Gondoire*, as a part of the Parc Culturel de Rentilly, will act as a unique and singular window open to the world.

The frac île-de-france** – which is already present in Paris with its own temporary exhibition space, le plateau – will exhibit its collection (and will also invite other collections, public or private, French and international) in le château de Rentilly, thus playing with the status of the building: it is at once a sculpture and an exhibition space freely accessible to the public.

The new château de Rentilly is an expression of the revived focus on the historical legacy and the enthusiasm of the Communauté d’agglomération for art and public commitment.

Le château de Rentilly thus metamorphosed will be inaugurated with the exhibition Explore.* : with regard to a new building to be discovered, the exhibition takes this idea of discovery and exploration as a point of departure for making a selection of works within the collection of frac île-de-france. In this respect, it is especially the notion of space that these works broach in a very diversified way for novel experiments.

* The urban community of Marne et Gondoire

** The Regional Contemporary Art Fund of Île-de-France

The rehabilitation work for Le château has been carried out by the Communauté d'agglomération de Marne et Gondoire, with the support of the ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, the Région Île-de-France and the Département de la Seine-et-Marne.

* Explore. Is the second part of an exhibition triptych devoted to the collection of the frac île-de-france:

Interprète. (28.03 – 11.05.14), le plateau, Paris Explore. (22.11.2014 – 22.03.2015), le château, Rentilly Célèbre. (16.11.– 10.05.15) Mamco, Genève

3 Explore. 22 November 2014 – 22 March 2015

Curator: Xavier Franceschi

Dove Allouche, Pierre Bismuth & Michel Gondry, Philippe Decrauzat, Mark Geffriaud, Laurent Grasso, Caroline Mesquita, Ulla von Brandenburg, Xavier Veilhan

Mark Geffriaud, Polka Dot, 2008, Collection frac île-de-france, © Mark Geffriaud

Explore., the second part of a triptych of exhibitions devoted to the collection of the frac île-de- france*, is the opening exhibition at Rentilly castle, rehabilated by Xavier Veilhan, the architects Bona/Lemercier and the set designer Alexis Bertrand, and now the second premises of the frac île-de-france as part of its multi-site project. In this particular context, with regard to a new building to be discovered, the decision of the exhibition was to take this idea of discovery and exploration as a point of departure for making a selection of works within the collection. In this respect, it is especially the notion of space that these works broach in a very diversified way for novel experiments. A large loft linking up with the ‘white cube’ but defying explanation (Pierre Bismuth & Michel Gondry), flying over a seascape against a backdrop of ghostly evocations (Laurent Grasso), sombre representations of the black sea in its cardinal points or particularly hazy abysses (Dove Allouche), it is actually often a question of confronting reality in its spatial dimension as if the better to grasp it.

But like these ever anonymous figures, in spite of all attempts to recognize them (Ulla von Brandenburg), or like these images that a solar light beam intermittently lightens (Mark Geffriaud), reality tends to endlessly elude us when we try to circumscribe it, making way for so many unresolved mysteries. Circumvolutions, cycles and rotations: another feature of the show lies in the fact of presenting a number of pieces very formally incorporating the figure of the circle and the loop. From the gesture of bypassing which is the basis of Ulla von Brandenburg’s film (Around, 2005)—in a loop–, to the 360° revolutions adopted by Pierre Bismuth’s, Mark Geffriaud’s and Philippe Decrauzat’s pieces, this figure and its many different forms stake out the exhibition like so many footholds in the space. There is also a figure of movement: beyond an eternal return and the reflexive form it symbolizes, it corresponds to this idea of displacement suggested by the exhibition and the overall proposal.

Explore., or the need to walk around the different spaces of the new Rentilly castle…

Xavier Franceschi

* Interprète. Le plateau, Paris (28.03 – 11.05.14) ; Explore. Le château, Rentilly (22.11.2014 – 22.03.2015) ; Célèbre. Mamco, Genève. (16.02 – 10.03.15)

4 Interviews with the different actors involved in the project

Michel Chartier and Xavier Franceschi

Michel Chartier is President of the Communauté d’agglomération de Marne et Gondoire (Marne et Gondoire Urban Community) Xavier Franceschi is director of the frac île-de-france (Ile-de-France Regional Contemporary Art Collection)

Xavier Franceschi: The frac île-de-france has been a partner of the Parc culturel de Rentilly since 2006, with an initial exhibition proposed in the castle’s outbuildings. Based on that first collaboration, we decided to carry on the experiment with one to two annual exhibitions devised on the basis of the frac’s collection. A real partnership has in fact been established between the Parc culturel and the frac, including in particular a common jury dealing with artists’ residencies. Eight years after those early days, how do you appraise this partnership and this contemporary art project?

Michel Chartier: The Parc culturel project, supported by this partnership which we have set up together, has offered an opportunity to inform and raise the awareness of the people of Marne et Gondoire about contemporary art, and cultural issues which were previously not really part and parcel of their daily lives. The exhibitions held have made it possible to present works from the frac collection in an unusual way, and bring life to the whole park by way of the exhibition venues.

XF: Precisely… we have become involved together in a new project, and a not inconsiderable one at that, because what is involved is the renovation of the castle, which had fallen into disuse. Given its architecture, which is of little value, heritage-wise—the building is not listed as a historic monument—I suggested that you do something totally novel with it: put that renovation in the hands of an artist. And you agreed…

MC: Since the Communauté d’agglomération de Marne et Gondoire set up shop in the Domaine de Rentilly, we have launched several phases of renovation. Renovating the castle was part of our projects, but I didn’t see the interest of an identical renovation which would not have been very attractive…I wanted the Rentilly park to be identified as a an artistic place, so making the castle a work of art itself could be an enticing proposition! We therefore launched a call for tenders for the project, and studied the submissions of the various candidates. We asked different institutions and for that renovation we obtained the backing of the ministère de la Culture et de la Communication in the form of a public commission.

XF: The idea—a very simple one, in the end—is actually to make the castle both a place totally suitable for the presentation of exhibitions and an artwork in its own right. Xavier Veilhan, who won the competition that was organized with that in view, totally integrated the whole thing by proposing nothing less than a sculpture on the scale of the building, which will have wonderful exhibition areas. The gesture is radical. The result won’t leave people indifferent.

MC: This is a chance being offered to the Domaine to rethink the architecture of this place thanks to the way a great artist like Xavier Veilhan looks at things. We are duty bound to grasp this opportunity and share it with the inhabitants of Marne et Gondoire. I’m prepared to defend this choice among the public, and explain it. The Parc culturel must move forward, and this is what it is doing with this original and novel project.

XF: This project is at once part of the development plan for the Parc culturel de Rentilly and part of the development plan that involves the frac île-de-france. As it happens, it is a question of establishing not a “second generation” FRAC, where everything is brought together in a single site, but a multi-site FRAC with different footholds in the region. We are present in Paris with our “historic” place which is Le plateau, so from now on we shall be present in Seine-et-Marne at Rentilly, within the Marne et Gondoire Urban Community. How do you see what seems to my eyes to be a real point of convergence between our respective projects?

MC: More than a point of convergence between our respective projects, the Parc culturel de Rentilly will henceforth represent, both for the frac and for our inter-communal organization, the hub of a high quality and accessible cultural policy.

XF: This new presence and this project will definitely change the deal for the Parc culturel de Rentilly. New identity, new kinds of public… How do you see this development, which will without any doubt make Rentilly one of the new pivotal venues in Ile-de-France?

MC: It seems important to me to be at the heart of what is artistically topical, and “stick” to today’s art; to present contemporary artistic propositions also to show that contemporary art does not just concern an intellectual elite, and that every one, novices and the already initiated alike, can be touched, moved and amused by a contemporary work. This place is a new space of artistic distribution, carrying on the cultural policy conducted by Marne et Gondoire since its creation.

Xavier Veilhan and Xavier Franceschi

Xavier Veilhan is an artist

Xavier Franceschi: Can you tell us what your thinking has been with regard to the project for Le château de Rentilly, which thus consisted in coming up with a renovation plan for the place, so as to make it at once a work of art and a place perfectly suited to the presentation of exhibitions?

Xavier Veilhan: I don’t regard this task as an artwork, but rather as a new adventure whose concept must be adapted to a function. I’m moving to the other side of the fence and this questions my legitimacy as an artist: in relation to a work, a building is installed in space and time in a different way. I’ve tried to make the most of the garden and the castle by keeping the geometry and the design. The inside shows a preference for modularity, simplicity, light and simple volumes.

XF: I’m fond of saying that your proposal for Rentilly is a sculpture of a castle on the scale of a castle… Over and above a material—polished stainless steel—, which happens to be the one that you used recently for a series of sculptures, can we precisely summon up this question of scale ratio—here 1:1…--which has regularly been at the heart of your work? I’m thinking of your very early works where, on one and the same plane, you juxtaposed different elements with necessarily different scales; I’m thinking of those pieces, which use this notion to produce an interplay of perception about what is near and what is far…

XV: For me, Le château de Rentilly is the fact of associating the image elevated to scale 1 and the exhibition function. The scale is also what, for example, makes the difference between figuration and abstraction: the object is nothing other than the perception that one has of it.

XF: Precisely: the perception that people will have of the castle will have nothing unambiguous about it… and this, given the material used which will reflect the landscape round about. The building will in fact have a tendency to blend into it, and here lies all the unusualness of the project. In this sense, you talked about a furtive castle, a ghost castle…

XV: It was important to keep the design, “the idea of the castle”, and at the same time to make it disappear. Camouflage, the presence of an object that you cannot see, the existence of ideas before they take shape, all this is connected with the content of my work, but also with its nature. The castle, as we found it, is already a ghost of the previous one, which was destroyed by fire just after the last war, and rebuilt with not a lot of money. It’s a kind of ghost, an ectoplasm. I would like the new castle to be the representation of the immaterial exchanges, which will take place in it. A reflecting building.

XF: For some time you have been very involved with projects linked to architecture. In particular this means Architectones, which takes you turn by turn into certain historic constructions, be it in Los Angeles—the modernist villas designed by Neutra, Koenig and Lautner—or in Marseille, and Le Corbusier’s Cité radieuse, to put on exhibitions there. Rentilly is obviously something different—in it, it is a matter of making a real architectural production--, but how do you link up all these projects where, in fact, this relation to architecture is predominant?

XV: It is invariably the relation to Architecture, whatever kind it may be, which stimulates me. And Tony Smith, Gordon Matta-Clark and Donald Judd have shown certain possible paths which link Art to Architecture. The practice is multiple: inhabiting, constructing and transforming. The idea of construction fascinates me, because it is subject to a context, and transforms it. It is a factor which connects the landscape to the work, for example.

XF: Is it possible to see Le château de Rentilly, which you have re-visited to turn it into a work accommodating other works, as a logical sequel to those exhibition arrangements which have staked out your career: The Glass Wall, The Hyperrealist Project, Baron Triqueti?

XV: Yes, even if I’m only realizing this after the fact: a base, a set and an architecture are components of a work, and can be the point of departure of a project. I don’t differentiate between the creative work involved by one of my pieces and the work involving a system for showing pieces by other artists. In the end of the day, they are works, within such and such an architecture, be it museums, galleries, open or closed places, public and private alike. There is what is shown, visible and tangible, and there is the void, which surrounds it. These voids and solids are never completely just that. The real world is rather like a set of juxtaposed cells, a more or less dense “moss”. Exploring the context of the work by way of architecture in all its forms is a freedom and an opportunity that I don’t want to miss.

*Jorge-Luis Borges, Of Exactitude in Science, in A Universal History of Infamy, London 1973

6 Xavier Veilhan, Elisabeth Lemercier, Philippe Bona, Alexis Bertrand and François Barré

Elisabeth Lemercier and Philippe Bona are architects, associated in the Bona-Lemercier Agency Alexis Bertrand is a set sesigner François Barré is President of the frac île-de-france

François Barré: How did the ground-breaking idea come about, of enveloping the castle in a façade made of mirror- polished stainless steel?

Xavier Veilhan: The building had no qualities but the public is rightly attached to it. The grounds are very beautiful, so I wanted to make the grounds visually enter the building, I wanted this latter to be visually erased, while keeping its design. I’ve mentioned the monster of James McTiernan’s Predator as a point of departure, a sort of total dissolve in the landscape.

Bona-Lemercier: We have regarded the building like a matrix creating both the enveloped volume and the interior space. In no time, mirror-polished stainless steel seemed the right thing to use because of its precious character. It was a matter of enhancing the building, which was nothing other than a castle made of pasteboard. We have heightened the effect by imposing a creased skin, which diffracts the image of the park grounds, as if to dissolve the edifice. We have also insisted on keeping the castle’s windows. Fitted with mirror panes without silvering and with full frames, they add to the confusion and, through reciprocity, propose from the interior a pictorial relation to the landscape. The ditches dug on the edge of the building reinforce its precious character and its autonomy.

FB: Elisabeth Lemercier and Philippe Bona, what relation do you have with art, and more particularly with Xavier Veilhan? What role has he played in the way the project has advanced?

B-L: We have a very natural and very friendly relation with art and more particularly with Xavier Veilhan, for whom we have respectively built and decorated his house, and designed and built his studio. Every time we have a chance to work in the domain of art, as in our previous project for the CNEAI (the Center of Art and Image Publishing in Chatou) we feel a complicity in our attachment to ideas and our belief in the capacity of matter and techniques to carry them out. Xavier Veilhan has played an essential role in the project, and very especially in the way he always refocuses the idea on simple basic principles, and avoids things becoming dispersed.

FB: What, for you, are the essential positions and objectives to do with the castle project.

B-L: Carrying on with the fundamental principle of the project, connected with its image and its relation to the landscape, there is also the idea of making the edifice attractive and accessible. This is an idea dear to Xavier Veilhan, of associating art with walking and not necessarily addressing an informed public. In this spirit we have come up with the idea of transforming the whole of the roof into a terrace, a third exhibition area, outdoors, but also a panoramic viewpoint over the distant landscape beyond the boundaries of the park. A third device bolsters the idea of emptying the castle in order to rediscover inside it the counterpart of the external volume. The development of the historic basements to contain all the auxiliary functions—reception, cloakroom, toilets, workshops, technical premises, etc.—allows us to leave the exhibition areas free.

Alexis Bertrand: The point of departure for our project aimed at giving back to the garden and the grounds a strong building, a castle, where there had previously only been a edifice without any qualities. We wanted to re-use and re- charge the idea of the castle, which remained in the minds of people using the Parc culturel de Rentilly. Added to this is the idea of celebrating what struck us during our first visit to the site, namely the garden and the grounds, both magnificent. This is why we have brought garden and grounds inside the castle, which has become a stainless steel ingot. The building’s interior is informed by this same desire for dialogue with the exterior through the framing interplays of the many windows and the creation of a roof terrace.

FB: Alexis Bertrand, what are the features of the inside areas and their compatibility with the showing of contemporary art?

AB: The sets developed propose reversing the situation, which wanted art to lend itself to the castle décor, and henceforth had this latter being adapted to the needs of the exhibition. With two large set-like areas and an outdoor terrace, the castle becomes a display tool, which can be completely renewed on the basis of the nature of the curatorial projects. The two indoor exhibition venues are fitted with a set of very large peripheral white moveable walls, the castle’s new indoor volumetry incorporates and plays with the large number of windows giving onto the English-style grounds and the French-style garden. With windows uncovered, and with windows masked by one of the walls, successive exhibitions will offer an opportunity to re-create the view of the grounds from the castle. So the scenographic stance stems from the introduction of an operative and functional tool, linked with the landscape, preferring the potential of space and light rather than a definitive, authoritarian and fixed itinerary. 7 Biographical notes

Alexis Bertrand (born in 1979, lives and works in Paris):

Alexis Bertrand has been designing sets for exhibitions and spectacles since 2005. He has worked in particular with the ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie), the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Strasbourg, the Centre Pompidou, the Château de Versailles, the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, the Maison des Arts de Créteil, the Théâtre National de Toulouse and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He also works on a very regular basis with the artist Xavier Veilhan on projects involving works, exhibitions and shows. www.alexis-bertrand.net

Xavier Veilhan (born in 1963, lives and works in Paris):

As a major figure on the international art scene, since the late 1980s Xavier Veilhan has been developing an approach with many different forms: sculpture, painting, environment, spectacle, video, and photography, which comes somewhere between formal classicism and high technology Art for him is “a tool of vision through which you have to look to understand our past, our present, and our future”. Xavier Veilhan questions our perception by putting on exhibitions in the form of landscapes and site-specific interventions in cities, parks and houses (Veilhan Versailles, 2009 ; Veilhan at Hatfield : Promenade, 2012 ; the series Architectones, 2012-2014). Well proven in projects in the public place, he recently installed his first sculpture in New York, on 6th Avenue (Jean-Marc, 2012).His spectacle, SYSTEMA OCCAM, around a composition by Eliane Radigue, was presented in 2013 in Marseille, Paris and New York. His projects for 2014 include solo shows in Seoul, Moscow, and Barcelona. Xavier Veilhan is represented by the Galerie Perrotin (New York, Hong Kong & Paris), Andréhn-Schiptjenko (Stockholm) and 313 Art Project (Seoul). www.veilhan.com

Bona-Lermercier

After studying architecture at the Paris Tolbiac School of Architecture and City Planning, Philippe Bona worked for eight years with Jean Nouvel on several French and foreign projects, while developing his own work, in association with Elisabeth Lemercier since 1991. Likewise a graduate of the Paris Tolbiac School of Architecture and City Planning, Elisabeth Lemercier has worked with the OMA-Rem Koolhaas, in particular for the Rotterdam Kunsthal and the Euralille conference centre. In tandem, she has conducted and participated in research into the history of the bedroom and the patrimonialization of large complexes. Since 2009, she has been teaching architectural design at the Versailles Ecole nationale supérieure d’archietcture. Today, their agency is working on various architectural programmes, involving new construction and renovation, with a soft spot for projects associated with art and culture. It is in this field that their approach is finding the best reactions and that their aesthetic and qualitative demands are linked together. In a general way, their activities are oriented towards experimental projects regarding the spatial quality and the technicity connected to materials and constructive practices. They are developing endlessly renewable manufacturing processes and are making use of industrial procedures in the development and prefabrication of the elements which form their buildings and improvement schemes.

8 The Communauté d’agglomération de Marne et Gondoire (the Marne et Gondoire Urban Community)

Parc culturel de Rentilly. Photo by Martin Argyroglo

Located some twenty miles to the east of Paris in Seine-et-Marne, the Parc culturel de Rentilly houses the offices of the Communauté d’agglomération de Marne et Gondoire. The Parc culturel de Rentilly, which saw the light of day in September 2006, is part of the territorial project of Marne et Gondoire to make culture a powerful and unifying feature among its inhabitants. Devised as a fixed point in the heart of the territory, the Parc culturel’s brief is thus to weave links towards all the communes in the greater area, to create cultural programmes as near as possible to residents, and thus be a hub for a cultural programme aimed at the territory.

Made up of exhibition rooms, a documentary resource centre and a venue for living arts, the Parc culturel opens the Rentilly Estate up to contemporary art. It is developing a programme to help artistic creation and distribution by establishing artists’ residencies. So since 2007 it has been welcoming visual artists, writers, choreographers and dancers, in residences. Each one of these residencies goes hand-in-hand with a programme of information and awareness-raising, exhibitions and performances for the Marne et Gondoire public, and in particular interventions in schools, which represent a major goal of the the Parc culturel’s policy.

The Parc culturel is also devoted to live events, proposing all year round spectacles and shows, storytelling, and workshops designed for the young public.

On 16 September 2006, in conjunction with the creation of the Parc culturel, the first exhibition of the frac île-de- france was held in the Rentilly exhibition rooms. Since 2006, there has been a succession of contemporary art shows, for a growing number of visitors. This markedly rising attendance bolsters the Parc culturel in the missions it has set for itself in terms of contemporary art distribution and providing access to culture for as many people as possible. In 2007 the Parc culturel confirmed its partnership with the frac by signing a three-year agreement, which was renewed in 2011. The year 2011 marked the beginning of the renovation of the castle, the project being entrusted to Xavier Veilhan (it was executed in collaboration with the architects Bona-Lemercier and the set designer Alexis Bertrand), based on a proposal made by the frac île-de-france. This renovation is part of the system of support for public commissions of the ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, accompanied by the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’ïle-de-France. The desire of the Communauté d’agglomération de Marne et Gondoire is to make the renovated castle a place dedicated to the exhibition of works from the frac collection, and works from collections invited by this latter, with the frac île-de- france thus becoming a key player for the distribution (exhibition and mediation) of contemporary art at the Parc culturel. The logical sequel of the agreement uniting the Parc culturel and the frac designates Rentilly castle as the frac Ile-de-France’s second venue.

Le frac île-de-France (Ile-de-France Regional Contemporary art Collection)

View of the exhibition « Interprète ». In the foreground, detail of « Le principe Totochabo », Benjamin Seror, 2011. Photo by Martin Argyroglo

The task of the frac, created in 1983, is to support contemporary art and distribute it as closely as possible to different kinds of public. In this sense, the enrichment of its collection—which today consists of almost 1,200 works, based on the forward-looking search for new talent and concerning all the various fields of creation--, its programme of exhibitions and events based on the production of works and novel projects, its mediation programmes aimed at all kinds of public to acquaint people with today’s art and its publishing policy all represent the basic themes of an ambitious project at the level of both the Ile-de-France and at a national and international level. Since 2012, the frac has been involved with a development project consisting in introducing a “multi-site” structure: this involves setting up a plural installation of the institution actually within the different territories of the Ile-de- France region, to optimize its programme for distributing contemporary art within its walls and beyond them, for all manner of public. In this way, alongside le Plateau, its “historic’ venue in Paris, a new place is added based on a strong partnership with the Communauté d’agglomération de Marne et Gondoire, Le château de Rentilly. This new configuration makes it possible precisely to assign different functions to each of the frac’s footholds: an art centre mission for Le plateau in Paris, presentation of collections at Le château de Renilly.

Le Plateau is now a must-visit venue for contemporary art in France. Its art programme includes three to four annual exhibitions conceived on the basis of alternating group and solo shows, giving rise to new productions and the execution of specific projects. Since 2009, curators have been associated with the art programme for a two-year period—currently Philippe Decrauzat and Mathieu Copeland—in order to come up with a set of exhibitions both at Le plateau and in the territory, with the collection.

In November, the castle at Rentilly becomes the frac’s second venue, as the logical sequel to a partnership entered into in 2006 with the Marne et Gondoire Urban Community. So the frac île-de-france has a new and outstanding place for regularly presenting its collection, as well as for programming meetings connected with the exhibitions on view. In addition to the presentation of one exhibition a year at the castle, based on its own collection, the frac île-de-france will organize presentations of other collections, public and private, French and foreign alike, thus making this new site in Ile-de-France a place of reference and visibility for the contemporary heritage in France.

Beyond the walls, some thirty projects are being organized with the collection every year, with a preference for experimentation, the presence of artists, and working over the long term with partners in the territory.

The frac île-de-france enjoys the support of the Région Île-de-France, the ministère de la Culture et de la Communication—Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Île-de-France, and the Ville de Paris. The frac is a member of the Tram network, Platform, the FRAC group and of the Grand Belleville.

10 The FRACs (Regional Contemporary Art Collections)

Created in 1982 by the ministère de la Culture, in partnership with the Regions, the FRACs represent an original and essential tool supporting creative activity, the cultural development of the territory and raising public awareness, in particular by the mobility of the collections which are their hallmark. The distribution of works, their circulation by way of exhibitions and shows, and their visibility due to publications all contribute to the spread and export of French culture.

There are 23 FRACs today. Each one has as it brief the task of forming, developing, conserving, distributing and, more broadly, promoting a collection of contemporary works on the basis of an artistic and cultural project put forward by its director.

La commande publique (public commissions)

By accompanying and supporting the public commissioning of artworks, the State and the ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, confirms its determination to accompany his public partners (local authorities, public establishments, in association at times with private partners) in the enrichment of the national heritage and the living environment. Through the presence of works of art outside just institutions dedicated to contemporary art, public commissions permit contemporary art to encounter as many people as possible. They are also aimed at providing artists with a tool enabling them to produce projects whose scope, challenges and at times utopian or experimental character call for unusual means.

11 Le château de Rentilly : a few key dates

1529 Jean Bourdereuil, lord of Rentilly Construction of the first castle to appear on Rentilly land.

1819 Transformation of the castle’s interior and development of the grounds (creation of the English-style park)

1846 Edouard André (1833-1894), founder of the Jacquemart-André Museum, inherited the estate in 1865, enlarged the castle, then improved the grounds (French-style perspective, reflecting ponds, etc.)

1980 Improvement of the outbuildings (Trophy Room—framework by the Eiffel workshops—and Turkish baths), then construction of the watchmen’s lodgings (1896) and lodgings in the Norman style for the foreman (1910).

1944 The castle was burnt down by the Germans.

1954 Reconstruction of a new castle in the “Restoration” style on the foundations of the old one.

2001-2003 The Marne et Gondoire Communauté de Communes, chaired by Michel Chartier, acquired the Rentilly estate.

2003 The Marne et Gondoire Communauté de Communes renovated the grounds in the English style.

September 2006 Inauguration of the outbuildings and the orangery renovated by the Communauté d’agglomération de Marne et Gondoire and birth of the Parc culturel de Rentilly. Opening of the first exhibition proposed by the frac île-de-france, marking the start of a significant and essential collaboration between the frac and the Parc culturel de Rentilly.

2011 Launch of a competition for the renovation of the castle to become the frac île-de-france’s second venue and thus a fully-fledged place for exhibiting contemporary art. Xavier Veilhan’s project (produced in collaboration with the architects Bona-Lemercier and the set designer Alexis Bertrand) was chosen from among the four short-listed teams (Laurent Pariente /Lalo, Tobias Rehberger/PCA, Guillaume Leblon/Anjoyi,- Beltrando). The project presented to the consultative committee for public commissions was unanimously accepted and obtained the backing of the ministère de la Culture et de la Communication. It was supported by the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles

2012 Work started in July 2012.

22 November 2014 Inauguration of the castle.

12 Le château de Rentilly Selection of images

Images can be downloaded from Myra’s website, www.myra.fr (password on request, contact Magda Kachouche or Yannick Dufour- [email protected] / +33 1 40 33 79 13)

Artistic team : Alexis Bertrand, Xavier Veilhan, Elisabeth Lemercier, Philippe Bona. Photo : Diane Arques (ADAGP, Paris, 2014)

Model for Le Château de Rentilly. Centre national des arts plastiques, 2012. Photo © Gaston Bergeret. © Bona-Lemercier/Alexis Bertrand/Xavier Veilhan (ADAGP, Paris, 2014)

3D model for Le château de Rentilly. Centre national des arts plastiques, 2012. Image 3D © Vincent Germond. © Bona-Lemercier/Alexis Bertrand/Xavier Veilhan (ADAGP, Paris, 2014)

Le château de Rentilly (view of the work site September 2014) Photo: Martin Argyroglo. © Bona-Lemercier/Alexis Bertrand/Xavier Veilhan (ADAGP, Paris, 2014)

Le château de Rentilly (interior view October2014) Photo: Florian Kleinefenn. © Bona-Lemercier/Alexis Bertrand/Xavier Veilhan (ADAGP, Paris, 2014)

Le château de Rentilly (view of the work site September 2014) Photo: Martin Argyroglo. © Bona-Lemercier/Alexis Bertrand/Xavier Veilhan (ADAGP, Paris, 2014)

Le château de Rentilly (view of the work site September 2014) Photo: Martin Argyroglo © Bona-Lemercier/Alexis Bertrand/Xavier Veilhan (ADAGP, Paris, 2014)

Xavier Veilhan, Le Mini Rentilly, 2013 Stainless steel (mirror polished), wood Courtesy Galerie Perrotin Paris, © photo Claire Dorn © Veilhan (ADAGP, Paris, 2014)

To be mentioned for all images:

A commission of the Communauté d’agglomération de Marne et Gondoire carried out with the support of the ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, as part of the commande publique.

Explore. Selection of images

Images can be downloaded from Myra’s website, www.myra.fr (password on request, contact Magda Kachouche or Yannick Dufour- [email protected] / +33 1 40 33 79 13)

Pierre Bismuth, Michel Gondry, The All Seeing Eye (The Hardcore Techno Versio), 2008, Collection frac île-de- france, ©droits réservés

17 Notes for editors

frac île-de-france / Parc culturel de Rentilly le château

Address Communauté d’agglomération de Marne et Gondoire Parc culturel de Rentilly Domaine de Rentilly, 1 rue de l’Etang 77600 Bussy-saint-Martin Tél. : +33(0)1 60 35 43 50

Opening times Wednesday and Saturday 2.30 -5.30 pm Sunday10 am-1 pm and 2.30 -5.30 pm

How to get there RER A stationTorcy then a 15 minutes walk or bus PEP'S line 21 (stop at Rentilly) or lines 46/25/13 (stop at Cèdre) Saturday 22 November: buses every 30 minutes from RER to the château

Free enrance

Webite www.fraciledefrance.com

Email [email protected]

Guided tours Every Sunday at 3.30 pm