L'œuvre vive: Land Art at Vassivière.

Jeann Clareboudt’s Passages Fer (1991) near the exhibition space.

‘Nous ne disposons pas un objet dans le paysage. Nous fabriquons du paysage. Et là, il n'y a jamais de fin’*. 

Words briviste Jean-Guy Soumy puts in the mouth of one of his characters in his book L'œuvre vive (2006). In his words of thanks he refers to the Centre national d’art et du paysage de Vassivière-en-Limousine as an important source of inspiration. The center is located on a hill that became an island in 1952 when the construction of a hydroelectric dam created a new lake.

Tower with it conical shape and staircase.

By the 1980’s the island became a place where sculpture and nature met, in 1983 the first exhibition ‘L’ile aux pierres’ was organized, by 1987 the institution was projected and by 1991 an exhibition space by Aldo Rossi and Xavier Fabre was added.

To appreciate Yona Friedman’s La Licorne de Vassivière (2009) you have to climb the tower.

Scattered over the island you find a wide array of works, Jeann Clareboudt’s Passages Fer (1991) near the exhibition space caught our eye as well as a giant German helmet that formed Marco Boggio Sella’s Untitled (2003), Jean Estaque’s Sans titre (1987). To appreciate Yona Friedman’s La Licorne de Vassivière (2009) you have to climb the tower, which is a really impressive piece of architecture with it conical shape and staircase.

Andy Goldsworthy’s Sans titre (1992).

Worth mentioning on the waters-edge were Andy Goldsworthy’s Sans titre (1992) consisting of two circular walls, one in the forest on land the other mostly submerged in the lake, Jean-Pierre Uhlen’s Steinland (1990) and Marc Linder’s Sans titre (1983).

Jean-Pierre Uhlen’s Steinland (1990).

The work that most impressed us was however a cast iron sculpture by Australian artist David Jones, Green place with red ants (1988). At first looked like a long tree that fell, then became a 22 meters long snake-like object supported by 11 granite blocks.

David Jones' Green place with red ants (1988).

By 2021 some 60 sculptures and a temporary exhibition LA VIE A ELLE-MÊME can be explored. Visit to the island is open and free, the exhibition closes for lunch and has a 5€ entrance fee. We suggest skipping the exhibition, though the building is quite impressive. Find out more about the landscape, history, vegetation, the villages and life on the causse:

The index of this blog.

*)We do not put an object in the landscape. We make the landscape. And once there, it never ends.

The Coly stream

Source of the Coly at the watermill of La Doux.

Currently the source of the Coly is found at the watermill of La Doux close to La Cassagne. Previously it was located close to Saint Amand de Coly, but as legend has it a local farmer, whilst he was ploughing a field, could just save his life (and that of his oxen) when the new source opened up and started to spray out water. The 10-meter deep well has since attracted much attention, between 1965 when the first serious exploration took place and the 1980s when researchers managed to explore the underground river for 3 kilometers. In 1991 they passed the 4-kilometer mark (which was a world record at the time) and in 2003 they managed 5,880 meters.

'Water is life'.

From its source at the La Douce watermill the Coly drops 40 meters over its 10 kilometers length before it falls into the Vézère river at Condat-sur-Vézère. The natural series of cascades has long providing power to a series of mills. The 1889 annals recommend it for its fish; raving about the trout, salmon and chub (Le chevesne, locally know as le cabot – Squalius cephalus) a kind of carp.

'Water is life'.

Today fishing is regulated and allowed in season and by permit only. Most common fish species are the minnow (Le vairon), bullhead (Le chabot), gudgeon (Le goujon), brown trout (La truite fario), northern pike (Le brochet). Rare are crayfish and brook lamprey (Le lamproie) a weird primitive 'jawless fish’.

'Water is life'.

On the waters edge you find water loving tree species like the Alder (Alnus glutinosa), Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), Willows (Salix sp.), European oak (Quercus robur), Black poplar (Populus nigra nigra), Lombardy Poplar (Populus nigra italica), other varieties of Poplar introduced for the production of wood (Populus x euramericana) as well as field Elm (Ulmus minor). With an undergrowth of Elder (Sambucus nigra), Hawthorn (Crategus monogyna), Spindle (Euonymus europaeus), Guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus) and common Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea). These linear forest form important ecological conduits in the landscape.

'Water is life'.

'Water is life', and hiking or cycling down the Coly you will be able to enjoy grasslands with Aquitaine and Limousine cattle, observe the dragonflies, damselflies and mayflies (only in may), kingfishers among many kinds of birds, aquatic plants, irises, narcissus and orchids…etc., on the banks. Find out more about the landscape, history, vegetation, the villages and life on the causse:

The index of this blog.

Introduction to the landscape: Prehistory

Lascaux cave paintings.

‘We have learned nothing in twelve thousand years’

Picasso might have exclaimed this at exiting the Lascaux cave (though it might have been: ‘We have invented nothing …’, or perhaps exiting the Altamira cave in Spain, there is no evidence for any of them). Bahn (2005) reveals Picasso’s limited interest in Ice Age art, he did own a reproduction of the Venus of Lespugue. His insight into the distorted ideas we have about early humans due to the ephemeral seems very valid:

‘Je ne crois pas me tromper en affirmant que les plus beaux objets de l’âge de, “pierre” étaient en peau, en tissu et surtout en bois. L’âge de “pierre” devrait s’appeler l’Age de bois.…’. *

Bison licking its side from the Madeleine shelter on display at the National Museum of prehistory.

The ‘Vézère valley ensemble’ of 147 prehistoric sites and 25 decorated caves, is now (as a landscape) classified UNESCO World Heritage site. The UNESCO states that: ‘The objects and the works of art found in the Vézère Valley are extremely rare witnesses of long extinct civilizations, which are very difficult to understand’. And that ‘by their chronology (from 400.000 to 10.000 years), these sites reflect the diversity of human occupations and artistic productions of prehistoric humankind. The essential of the sites is conserved in the state in which they were discovered, ensuring their authenticity’.

Map of Ice Age Europe, with prehistoric sites.

Much of the ‘outstanding universal value for humankind’ of this ‘dead-end migration route’ lies in the coherence of what was left behind. The landscape guided human and animal migration routes (reindeer and salmon) following rivers and cliffs, providing shelters and caves at a time the global human population was below 5 million. The Ice Age landscape looked very different, lower sea levels meant the continent, the British Isles and possibly on to present day Iceland) were one vast brush tundra supporting herds of bison, aurochs, horses, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and giant deer. Much (most) of the cultural remnants lie at the bottom of the sea, or have rotten away. The entrance to the decorated Cosquer cave was discovered at 36 meter below current water level of the Mediterranean. The sites of the Vézère valley were relatively accessible and relatively undisturbed.

The Cro-Magnon rock shelter with reproduced skeletons.

Undisturbed that was, till 1868 when the construction of the Périgueux-Agen railway line uncovered animal bones, flint tools, and human skulls in the Cro-Magnon rock shelter (abri) at Les Eyzies. French geologist Louis Lartet was called for excavations, and found the partial skeletons of four prehistoric adults and one infant, along with perforated shells used as ornaments, an object made from ivory, and worked reindeer antler. The discovery shocked the common understanding of human history and forced a re-think. 27,500 Years ago, people that shared modern anatomical characteristics, buried their dead carefully and left accompanying ‘offerings’.

Laugerie-Haute (24,000 – 14,000 BC) with its 10.000 year unbroken historic record.

The discovery led to a frenzy of treasure hunting excavations that turned up a series of shelters: Le Moustier, La Micoque, La Ferrassie, Shelter of the Fish, The Cap Blanc Shelter, all pieces of a puzzle that only fell in place with the excavation of the Laugerie-Haute (24,000 – 14,000 BC) with its 10.000 year unbroken record of bone tools, art objects and an abundant series of carved flint. Interestingly a travel industry developed around the pre-historic sites and caves, so conveniently located on the railway. Reading the accounts and advertisement up till the turn of the century leaves you wandering why there is no reference to the paintings? Interestingly enough no one saw them, visitors carved their names right across them at the Font-de-Gaume Cave without noticing.

Entrance to the Font de Gaume, les Combarelles, Abri du Cap-Blanc and Bernifal.

The 1878 third Paris World's Fair displayed Vézère Valley objects that attracted the fascination of a certain Mr. Sautuola. He decided to try his luck in some of the local caves on returning to Spain. Bringing his daughter along to hold the light, she first saw the figures on the ceiling of the cave (he had been scouring the floor for objects). In 1880 Sautuola published ‘his’ find, linking the drawings to the Paleolithic Period. Again shock, disbelieve and skepticism from incredulous prehistorians from evolutionist or creationist perspectives a like. They had to be fake… they were not recognized until 1902, after the discovery of Paleolithic rock art in caves like Combarelles and Font de Gaume had validated the idea.

Mammoth at the entrance to the Rouffignac cave.

By the end of the 19^th century the Vézère valley became known as the 'Valley of Mankind’. The discoveries made through haphazard excavation of prehistoric sites fed the euro-centrist (and ‘scientifically’ racist) world view that creativity and intelligence must have originated in Europe. Discoveries around the word** have since affirmed these qualities to be essentially human and ‘we’ carried them with us from Africa (with the African rift valleys now the ‘cradle of mankind’). The irrelevance was confirmed further when DNA research revealed little continuity between these early and present day Europeans, and now even Cheddar Man’seems to have had dark skin… we have learned little indeed ... still the same small tribal mindset. A more detailed introduction of Cave Art and some of the sites will be the subject of another post.

References:
*) ‘I do not think I am mistaken in saying that the most beautiful objects of the “Stone Age” were made of skin, fabric and especially wood. The "Stone" Age should be called the Wood Age’ …
As quoted in Bahn P., 2005. A Lot of Bull? Pablo Picasso and Ice Age cave art In:Munibe. Antropologia-arkeologia. 2005, Num 57, pp 217-223.  

**) For some recent examples see: Tens of Thousands of 12,000-Year-Old Rock Paintings Found in Colombia and 45,000-Year-OldPig Painting in Indonesia May Be Oldest Known Animal Art

Introduction to the landscape

‘Le gout des vieilles pierres’, story telling on a walk through Saint-Geniès.

‘Je suis un paysane, je vis dans mon pays, je façonne le paysage, et le paysage me façonne’.

Words spoken by storyteller Clément Bouscarel on a spring evening walk around Saint-Genies. Though his Occitane had a Quercy flavor to it, it hardly mattered as few people on the tour could make much sense out of the rolling R’s and vaguely Italian or Spanish echoing sentences.

A flat, functional and rationally controlled landscape, the Netherlands.

A landscape (paysage) is a spatial record of past and present activities and interactions of natural and cultural forces into a unified whole. The word 'landscape' can be traced to Germanic languages of the 12^th century and was used to refer to inhabitants of a region. It covered the shape of the land, the customs of the people and the material forms generated by these customs as well as the immaterial laws and organizations.

The bright city lights: Three dimensional, free market, 24 hour economy, Hong Kong.

The landscape is not just a product of nature; climate, relief, soil, flora and fauna. But also a product of people; their (un)intentional interventions. The landscape is a product of organizational (political), material (economic), technological (knowledge), cultural (perceptions) and natural forces. The landscape is not just matter but also a product of the mind. We perceive the face of the earth and interpret the scenery. We can ‘read’ landscapes through our own experience and that of our shared cultural memory.

The red soils and dry high forests of the Togo hills, Ghana.

As people grow-up in a landscape they often get attached to it (benchmark) and derive part of their identity from it. Landscapes are ephemeral: Ephemera are things people collect such as old postcards, posters and bus tickets, which were only intended to last a short time when they were produced (or for a particular function). The ephemeral manifest itself in the landscape in Temporarily Obsolete Abandoned Derelict Sites (TOADS), edgelands that have lost their function and have not yet found a new one. Landscapes ought to survive us so we can revisit the landscape of our youth, but the landscape of our youth might not even survive our youth (You can’t go home no more).

‘France may one day exist no more, but the Dordogne will live on just as dreams live on and nourish the souls of men’.

Regretting fast and large scale changes, what conservationists want to conserve at any given time is the status quo at a particular point between one set of human interventions and another – residue of yesterday’s ‘progress’ after it had acquired ‘patina’ a ‘feel of naturalness’ or ‘tradition’. People made changes to the landscape and have impacted on the environment where ever and whenever they appeared. New is the awareness of the change and the pride/shame it gives, the landscape became a product of people, and the people a product of the landscape. Find out more about the landscape, history, vegetation, the villages and life on the causse:

The index of this blog.