Introduction by Jean-Jacques Aillagon
« Throughout its existence, Versailles has encapsulated the creativity of artists from France and other nations […] Following the worldwide acclaim for the exhibition Jeff Koons Versailles in 2008, this year it is the turn of Xavier Veilhan to present his works inside the setting of the Château and its estate and to take on the task of working specifically for the site. He will be the latest in a centuries-old line of artists and designers: producing work for the Gardens, the Royal Court, the apartments of the Château, always in reaction and relation to the stunning heritage left by those who went before. »
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« Throughout its existence, Versailles has encapsulated the creativity of artists from France and other nations […] Following the worldwide acclaim for the exhibition Jeff Koons Versailles in 2008, this year it is the turn of Xavier Veilhan to present his works inside the setting of the Château and its estate and to take on the task of working specifically for the site. He will be the latest in a centuries-old line of artists and designers: producing work for the Gardens, the Royal Court, the apartments of the Château, always in reaction and relation to the stunning heritage left by those who went before. »
Download full text (PDF)
Introduction, by Xavier Veilhan
A year ago, when Laurent Le Bon and Jean-Jacques Aillagon invited me to follow in Jeff Koons’ footsteps, I had no idea just how much space in my life Versailles was going to take up: the exhibition is a wonderful opportunity to present my work on a big scale, both in terms of size and the public involved.
There’s a need here to measure up with the desires that were given shape by our ancestors, to show how our own desires can both protract and complement them, not innocently, but with the freshness of ambition. Mainly running along an east-west axis outside the Château itself, my proposal features a series of works specially produced for this occasion that create a contemporary dotted line which splits in two the masterly garden lay-out of Le Nôtre.
Art is a visual device which we have to look through in order to understand our past, our present and our future.
A year ago, when Laurent Le Bon and Jean-Jacques Aillagon invited me to follow in Jeff Koons’ footsteps, I had no idea just how much space in my life Versailles was going to take up: the exhibition is a wonderful opportunity to present my work on a big scale, both in terms of size and the public involved.
There’s a need here to measure up with the desires that were given shape by our ancestors, to show how our own desires can both protract and complement them, not innocently, but with the freshness of ambition. Mainly running along an east-west axis outside the Château itself, my proposal features a series of works specially produced for this occasion that create a contemporary dotted line which splits in two the masterly garden lay-out of Le Nôtre.
Art is a visual device which we have to look through in order to understand our past, our present and our future.
Introduction by Laurent Le Bon
« Veilhan Versailles is a stroll, an itinerary, a journey through the «landscape-territory» of Versailles. It is not a retrospective of the artist’s work – every piece has been newly commissioned. »
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« Veilhan Versailles is a stroll, an itinerary, a journey through the «landscape-territory» of Versailles. It is not a retrospective of the artist’s work – every piece has been newly commissioned. »
Download full text (PDF)
Presentation of the works, par Bénédicte Ramade, art critic.
How might one comprehend an ensemble of architecture and landscape as symbolic as Versailles?
Xavier Veilhan has done just that with an exhibition-piece open to all and situated principally within the ambulatory spaces of the palace and its gardens. Because, as any good artist attached to systems of representations’ concepts and processes, Veilhan has taken this opportunity to showcase a new piece placed within the perfect setting that is Louis XIV’s, a fluid and dynamic trajectory focused on the relationships between scale, equilibrium and observation points. These chapters, telling the story of a single solitary work, follow each other in the course of a scripted walkthrough, nourished by the genius of the surrounding environment and the great geniuses that inhabit the artist’s memory.
How might one comprehend an ensemble of architecture and landscape as symbolic as Versailles?
Xavier Veilhan has done just that with an exhibition-piece open to all and situated principally within the ambulatory spaces of the palace and its gardens. Because, as any good artist attached to systems of representations’ concepts and processes, Veilhan has taken this opportunity to showcase a new piece placed within the perfect setting that is Louis XIV’s, a fluid and dynamic trajectory focused on the relationships between scale, equilibrium and observation points. These chapters, telling the story of a single solitary work, follow each other in the course of a scripted walkthrough, nourished by the genius of the surrounding environment and the great geniuses that inhabit the artist’s memory.