group Show
HICHAM BERRADA
Voyage d'hiver
Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France
22.10.2017 – 07.01.2018

On the occasion of its 10t h exhibition of contemporary art, the Château de Versailles presents a discovery trail through the groves: Voyage d’hiver, curated by the Palais de Tokyo. As October winds down and the season of fountain shows draws to a close, this trail casts new light—from autumn glory to winter starkness—on the groves of Versailles, reinterpreted through the myriad perspectives of today’s artists. The Palais de Tokyo was invited to create Voyage d’hiver in collaboration with Alfred Pacquement, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Château de Versailles.

Voyage d’hiver is a poetic promenade through the gardens of Versailles that sets out when October has already begun rusting the foliage in new hues.

In what is one of the largest open-air sculpture museums in the world, 17 contemporary artists are adding their own works to those originally commissioned by Louis XIV. These artists, dialoguing with the curators, have designed a dramaturgy leading visitors through the groves, the curious open-air salons of greenery in the gardens of Versailles. Visitors move from one grove to the next along a deliberate route of increasing emotional intensity, which plays upon the historic or mythological significance of each individual space. Sculpture, sound installation, painting, drapery, reflection, oxidization, and glaciations are just a few of the techniques employed: metamorphosing a stroll into a personal experience, allowing visitors to perceive nature’s transformation from the glory of autumn to the starkness of winter. A clear reference to Schubert’s poignant meditation, the exhibition’s title emphasizes this crossover of time both on a cosmic scale and on a human scale.

Artists: David Altmejd, Jean-Marie Appriou, Oliver Beer, Hicham Berrada, John Giorno, Sheila Hicks, Marguerite Humeau, Cameron Jamie, Mark Manders, Céline Minard, Anita Molinero, Rick Owens, Dominique Petitgand, Ugo Rondinone, Tomás Saraceno, Louise Sartor, Stéphane Thidet