La Bastide Rose is a story of heart and feeling. Of an ardour for this big house with its romantic air and the Sorgue flowing alongside, and an intuition of its future as the ideal place to welcome artists and epicureans.
Complicated geometry
Several tons of white steel have been set down on the lawn of the Bastide like six feathers. Nicolas Sanhes is working busily among them. His huge, immaculate white sculptures resonate perfectly with the artist’s four stylistic fundamentals: void/strength, line/tension, time/pulse, space/breathing. «The monumental makes me small, posing a challenge that’s renewed with each sculpture,» says the Sanhes. Sculptures of this size demand a thorough study of volumetry, an ability to imagine form in space, an understanding of empty spaces. Nicolas Sanhes’ talent encompasses all that. The magnificence of vacant space! «I see the relationship with form as the essence of my sculpture. What’s established between the place and my piece of work, its perception, its apprehension. I join lines together to create this, and give life to vacant space. It’s that that makes it all work.» In his studio, steel girders are cut to length and hung from winches to be welded together. At the final blast of the blowtorch the structure is set down on its three or four support points. Nicolas Sanhes’ creations turn in on themselves, surround themselves, unknot themselves, joining heaven and earth, solidity and air. Monumental.
Poppy and Pierre Salinger Foundation
Ten years! The anniversary of the Foundation and of Pierre Salinger’s death. «I had such an amazing life with him!» Accompanied by a broad smile, this remark is quickly followed by the implacable observation that this life continues, with pleasures endlessly repeated. Poppy Salinger is like the building: warm, with delicate, harmonious colours, veering between romantic and eccentric according to the play of sunlight. This place, the last home of Pierre Salinger, is now a museum in honour of that prominent figure of 20th-century politics and journalism, tracking his remarkable career as a reporter and press secretary to President John F. Kennedy. Every year, the Foundation invites an artist to exhibit monumental works.
Exposition du 17 mai au 15 octobre, ouvert tous les jours de 14 h 30 à 19 h, fermé le mardi.
La Bastide Rose, 99 chemin des Croupières, Le Thor. www.pierresalinger.org
Côteweb 2021, création de site Internet sur Nice