NEWS

October 2020 - Château Palmer will host Genius Loci, an emblematic exhibition in tribute to the French plastic artist-photographer, François Méchain... In each of the places he worked in over forty-five years - his most intimate territories, his region, numerous foreign countries - this Charente native found the material necessary to imagine complex and unique pieces that he immortalized through his lens. Imbued with strong and committed messages, his sensitive way of approaching our world and the brilliance of its elements echoes the values of Château Palmer.

Sculptor-photographer, but also "journalist, geographer, biologist, historian, amateur sociologist" in his own words, François Méchain was from the start of his career a plastic artist in love with nature and travel, keen to get his viewers to reflect on what they are given to observe. Between 1978 and 1982, he produced Equivalences, a series of poetic and intimate photographs that questioned the powers of image, between illusion and reality. From 1988 to 1989, the nomadic artist modeled the nature surrounding him through enigmatic vegetal sculptures with geometric purity, theatricalized in natural landscapes.

Photographed, these Sculptures-Fictions still confuse reality and its representation. Whilst continuously traveling across vast and distant lands, he created large In-Situ installations, whose photographic prints constitute the ultimate culmination of a process highlighting both environmental concerns and philosophical or political reflections, depending on the context.

Over his forty-five years of creativity, François Méchain never ceased to widen the circle of his interests and his field of action. Firstly, the intimate sphere with Equivalences as its focus, then the spatial circle of Sculptures-Fictions with the landscapes working alongside the studio. Finally, the outer part of the circle through his homes and his overseas orders (Finland, Italy, Canada, Brazil, USA ...), in the context of In-Situ. 

The exhibition  « Genius Loci » by François Méchain may be seen during estate visits to Château Palmer, from 20th October 2020 to 15th January 2021. Length: 2 ½ hours - 70€ - Reservations by e-mail: chateau-palmer@chateau-palmer.com

*For everyone's safety, wearing a mask is compulsory within the property and the barrier gestures are applied. Depending on the evolution of the health crisis, the program may need to change.

Durban, Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2012 © François Méchain

August 2020 - For several years now, the notions of autonomy, circularity and respect for natural balances have been an integral part of Palmer’s agricultural commitment. This year, with the arrival of our market gardener, the brilliant Viviane, and the ambitious partnership forged with the Conservatoire du Goût de Floirac, the property’s semantic field is, more than ever before, heading in the right direction: during the spring confinement, permaculture and organic micro-market gardening planted their vegetable patch just a stone's throw from the Pereire brothers' château!

Spread over a surface area of ​​nearly 900 m2, tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, peppers and numerous ‘forgotten’ vegetables – regularly up to thirty different varieties, in as many colours and as many formats – find themselves alongside German strawberries, Mexican tomatillos and sweet Jimmy Nardello peppers when it comes to garnishing the table and nourishing the chef’s spirit of adventure and excellence. Veritable treasures grown from seed and carefully cultivated in accordance with the holistic vision that governs the vineyard here: compost, biodynamics, agroforestry, human hands.

Inspired by the principles of permaculture and experimentation at the Bec Hellouin micro farm in the Eure region, Château Palmer’s first year of market gardening advances ambitiously over time thanks to a wide range of possibilities: new varieties of plants, the installation of an open greenhouse, borehole water drip irrigation adapted to each plant, etc. An adventure that is only just beginning, but a vegetable garden which is already asserting itself as a natural and lasting source of exceptional products.

From January 6th through to April 24th 2020, Château Palmer will host the exhibition “Arctique” by the photographer, Jean Gaumy. The Frenchman, a member of Magnum Photos and elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2016, will present a selection of his photographs, taken during his recent scientific assignments to the North Pole. He gives one a unique vision of a fascinating area, well beyond the Arctic Circle, highlighting the same environmental concerns as those of Château Palmer. This exhibition was an obvious choice at the start of a year favourable to research and rich in discoveries.

We already knew about the Aquitaine photographer’s passion for enclosed areas, whether it be that of a hospital, a prison – in 1976, he was the first photojournalist to be permitted into a French prison or nuclear deterrent submarines. Hailed by Raymond Depardon and Marc Riboud, his first reports allowed him to join the agency, Gamma, before integrating Magnum’s team in 1977. Since then, Jean Gaumy has continued to expand the scope of his curiosity and his field of intervention: Iran, Central America, the contaminated territories of Chernobyl and Fukushima, the ocean waves aboard trawler boats, the high cliffs of Normandy…

Doubly rewarded with the Nadar Prize (2002, 2010) and elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts de l’Institut de France, in 2016, the photographer, on this occasion, roamed across Arctic landscapes shooting sumptuously magnetic compositions of flowing or frozen matter in primitive settings. Beyond his use of loose framing, one can feel his “decisive instinct” and, for a number of years now, his troubled reflection concerning Earth’s fate.

Global warming is three times more perceptible at the poles than on the rest of the planet. Since, 2013, Jean Gaumy has regularly accompanied oceanographers, from the BeBEST/LEMAR laboratory (CNRS, UBO, Natural History Museum), who study the impact of environmental changes on shellfish. He collects real life proof, searches for the mirage of ancient times and immortalises the threatened landscapes. From the Svalbard Archipelago (Norway) to the Daneborg base (Greenland), he voices his desire to “capture the genesis of the world” by pushing the “limits of photography”. The account of this northern immersion, right at the heart of the subject, quite naturally finds its place at Château Palmer, which shares the same desire to promote a territory’s footprint and to defend biodiversity, the same fascination for the “terra incognita” and a sense of adventure as well as the same conviction that art must serve nature.

The exhibition Arctique by Jean Gaumy may be seen during estate visits to Château Palmer, from January 6th through to April 24th 2020. Length: 2 ½ hours - 70€ - Reservations by e-mail: chateau-palmer@chateau-palmer.com