On peut percevoir, dans son travail, une tension entre un retour aux origines et une ouverture vers l’avenir. Il nous invite ainsi à imaginer un monde reconstruit, en réactivant des formes anciennes dans le présent. Dans un contexte actuel marqué par la désorientation et les crises climatiques, cela permet de redonner de la force aux idées, gestes et savoir-faire qui survivent par ce biais.

L’exposition pow. r. toc h. au Donjon de Vez

Pour Edgar Sarin, cette exposition est à la fois très construite et, parallèlement, un élément vivant, qui évolue quasiment de façon indépendante. Les œuvres sont positionnées comme s’il cherchait à occuper un espace progressivement. Cette exposition se tient principalement dans la Chapelle, un lieu tout particulier où chaque espace revêt une fonction et une architecture forte. Edgar Sarin va alors exposer ses œuvres comme des façons d’habiter l’espace : parfois de façon bien organisée, et parfois avec des gestes spontanés.

À l’extérieur : une sculpture figée

À l’extérieur des remparts, l’artiste installe Bronze aux amphores (2026). Ces objets anciens, servant autrefois à transporter et stocker des marchandises, servent ici d’inspiration pour une œuvre monumentale. Transformées en bronze, revêtant ainsi un aspect lourd et permanent, ces amphores sont empilées les unes sur les autres. Ces objets, autrefois faits pour être en mouvement, deviennent immobiles. Leur sens et leur présence sont donc complètement altérés et donnent au Donjon de Vez un nouvel élan.

Equilibre et perception dans la Salle Buren

Dans cette salle accueillant les vitraux de Daniel Buren, Edgar Sarin présente deux tableaux : Hildegard von Bingen series (2026). S’inspirant des plafonds étoilés anciens, et des visions mystiques d’Hildegard von Bingen, il fait ainsi apparaître une nouvelle image dans des tableaux anciens, révélant ainsi une nouvelle œuvre dans l’œuvre.

Vous pouvez aussi découvrir dans cette salle Héroïne égyptienne (2026). Cette sculpture, faite à partir d’une sculpture de Maillol joue sur l’équilibre, le rapport entre plein et vide et les changements de perception selon l’angle de vue.

La chapelle est un lieu chargé d’histoire, et cette exposition ajoute de nombreuses significations et une toute nouvelle perspective.

La salle des gardes, un espace de transition

La salle des gardes est un lieu de transition entre l’extérieur et l’intérieur. Elle rappelle une idée simple exprimée par le poète Pierre Albert-Birot : « Le monde bat de l’autre côté de ma porte ». Dans cet espace, Edgar Sarin installe Architecture n°1 – principe flexible (2026).

Il crée ici une structure fonctionnelle : une sorte de tente, pensée pour être déplacée et habitée. Cette tente, faite pour une seule personne, ressemble à un abri minimal, ce que le philosophe Gaston Bachelard appelle « l’absolu du refuge ». Autour, on trouve des objets en bois qui suggèrent une présence humaine. Il ajoute aussi une sculpture de la série Haniwa (2023), inspirée d’objets funéraires japonais placés autour des tombes.

Charpente Eiffel, un lien entre le monde mortel et immortel

Dans cette salle sous les toits, l’artiste installe deux œuvres : un Sarcophage (2025), un Nouveau Monument (2026) inspiré d’un ex-voto gallo-romain. Ces objets ont un point commun : ils servent à faire le lien entre les vivants et les morts, ou entre les humains et les dieux.

Un ventilateur met l’air en mouvement devant ces œuvres, rendant l’air visible et donnant l’impression que l’espace est traversé par quelque chose d’invisible, telle une trace laissée dans le ciel.

Avec ce geste simple, Edgar Sarin insiste sur un moment très fragile, presque imperceptible, que le philosophe Vladimir Jankélévitch appelle le « presque-rien » : quelque chose d’invisible, qu’on ressent sans pouvoir vraiment le définir.

Une logique entre règle et hasard

Dans toute l’exposition, Edgar Sarin alterne entre des gestes simples qui reviennent souvent (empiler, creuser, graver), et des interventions plus imprévisibles. Cela crée un équilibre entre système et spontanéité.

Cette exposition unique n’est pas pensée pour être entièrement expliquée mais pour laisser libre cours à la pensée des visiteurs. Les œuvres existent dans l’espace et le visiteur est libre de circuler, de ressentir, et peu à peu d’habiter le lieu lui-même.

Grâce à cette exposition, Edgar Sarin transforme ce lieu historique en un espace vivant, où les œuvres abordent les thèmes de mémoire, de passage et de présence, un lien entre passé et présent.

Cette exposition est à découvrir jusqu’au 1^er novembre 2026.

This year, the Donjon de Vez presents a new artistic experience with an exhibition dedicated to Joan of Arc, a major figure in the collective imagination, whose portrayal has continually evolved over the centuries. The exhibition explores the many faces of Joan: national heroine, saint, warrior, martyr and political and spiritual symbol. In the Donjon’s chapel, the exhibition highlights the richness and diversity of interpretations of Joan of Arc across different eras and media.

A brand-new exhibition to discover from 2 May to 5 September 2026

In the 19th century, the Buren Gallery—bathed in light from the two skylights designed by Daniel Buren—houses a collection of sculptures from an enthusiast for whom Joan of Arc remains ‘the bravest man in France’. Crafted in bronze, marble, gilded metal or onyx, these works showcase the many incarnations of the Maid of Orléans: horswoman, warrior maiden, saint or patriotic figure. Nineteenth-century sculpture thus shapes an idealised image, at the crossroads of the religious and the national.

Some pieces are familiar to the French public, such as Calder’s Stabile, Mark di Suvero’s L’Étoile du Jour, or the minimalist sculptures displayed in the Guards’ Room.

Others are more unusual and reveal lesser-known aspects of a rich history: the pioneering work of David Smith, that of Robert Indiana—a pop art figure—or Joel Shapiro’s sculptures. These works reflect both a culture—through word sculptures, number sculptures, or references to European art—and a true renewal of American sculpture beginning in the 1960s, with the rise of large-scale constructed sculpture in the United States.

MARK DI SUVERO, Krofted (1995)

SOL LEWITT, Sans titre (1966-68)

BERNAR VENET, Arcs sculptures (2000)

Kawamata, born in Tokyo in 1953, has made a name for himself on the international art scene with his raw wood installations that oscillate between sculpture, humble architecture, and contextual art. With these huts nestled in the trees that challenge the traditional garden, the artist invites us to shift our perception of the space and experience it in a new way.

TADASHI KAWAMATA, Tree Huts (2009) © Athis Hourdry - Soyez

TADASHI KAWAMATA, Tree Huts (2009) © Athis Hourdry - Soyez

TADASHI KAWAMATA, Tree Huts (2009) © Athis Hourdry - Soyez

La Savonnette - Robert Couturier

The twenty sculptures by Robert Couturier (1905–2008) on view offer a retrospective of an artist who was both a major figure and a witness to a 20th century marked by the avant-garde and profound artistic upheavals.

For over sixty years, in the quiet of his studio in the Villa Seurat in Paris, Couturier devoted himself to the human body—especially the female body—as his primary material.

Trained in drawing and lithography, he developed a sculptural language that began in the footsteps of Aristide Maillol, whom he met in 1928 and whose influence marked his early work. Maillol’s death in 1944 coincided with Couturier’s decisive emancipation. From then on, he committed himself to creating an “anti-Maillol,” combining void and solid, visible and invisible, interior and exterior space—in representations of the human figure, which he would never abandon.

His transition to a language of his own occurred when he began to suggest forms rather than impose them visually, while preserving a sense of fullness. He spoke of “open form,” where air and light move freely.

Taking the opposite approach of additive sculpture, Couturier chose to eliminate, remove, carve out and hollow the material so that form could emerge. This “anti-sculpture” embodies a metamorphosis of the body: along the viewer’s line of sight, the perception changes as the viewer moves.

This “sculptural draftsman” confronted real space directly and played with the balance of forces, suggesting forms that hover between presence and absence. The viewer is drawn into the work—the spectator becomes a participant, guided by what the piece offers.

Robert Couturier’s work is grounded in everyday life and poetic simplicity.

This exhibition is made possible with the support of Galerie Dina Vierny, representing the artist’s estate.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1905 in Angoulême, Robert Couturier studied lithography in Paris and soon caught the attention of Aristide Maillol in 1928, becoming his student and friend. In the 1930s, he won the Blumenthal Prize and participated in group exhibitions in Parisian galleries. In 1936, on the occasion of the 1937 World’s Fair, he received a commission for The Gardener, installed on the Trocadéro esplanade in Paris, and created all the sculptures and decorations for the Pavilion of Elegance, designed by Émile Aillaud.

In 1938, he co-signed the Rupture manifesto with the groups Forces Nouvelles and Nouvelle Génération. The manifesto advocated a return to traditional craftsmanship and artistic values. Their aim was to renew the representation of the human figure, and this aesthetic movement had an international impact.

Captured during World War II, Couturier managed to escape and later became one of the founding members of the Salon de Mai in 1943. After the war, in 1946, he was appointed professor at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

Couturier held his first solo exhibition in London in 1947 and participated in major shows in 1948–1949 that brought together past and new generations of sculptors in Bern and Amsterdam. He represented French sculpture at the Venice Biennale (1950), the São Paulo Biennial (1951), and participated in Sonsbeek (1952) and Antwerp (1953).

The Musée Rodin organized his first retrospective in 1970, followed in 1975 by the Monnaie de Paris, which presented a major collection of his sculptures, drawings, and medals.

To mark his 100th birthday, the Fondation Dina Vierny – Musée Maillol in Paris dedicated a retrospective to him. He was also named Officer of Arts and Letters. He passed away on October 1st, 2008, at the age of 103, leaving behind a body of work consisting of over 500 sculptures.

Blending tradition and modernity, Robert Couturier offered a new interpretation of the human figure. As the inventor of “allusive” sculpture, he moved away from classical forms to bring renewal. The female figure was his main source of inspiration. With a single line, he could suggest the whole body, using a varied language of elongated, full, or hollow shapes.

His dynamic works seek a dialogue between form and space. He played with materials—plaster, bronze, stone—and integrated everyday objects into his sculptures. Couturier’s works establish a rhythm between form and matter, a delicate balance that offers great interpretive freedom.

Robert Couturier, Jeune fille lamelliforme, 1950, bronze, 115 x 45.5 x 70 cm (courtesy Gelrie Dina Vierny © Jean-Louis Losi).

Robert Couturier dans son atelier, juillet 1997 (Photo © Jean-François Bonhomme)

Robert Couturier, Hommage à Millet, 1994, Bronze, 75.5 x 27.5 x 14.5 cm, (Photo Courtesy Galerie Dina Vierny © Jean-Louis Losi)

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Robert Couturier, Torse concave, 1966, Bronze, 177 x 25 x 28 cm ( Photo Courtesy Galerie Dina Vierny © Jean-Louis Losi)

Pot Or, Jean-Pierre RAYNAUD

Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) Vénus sans bras, 1922 (Bronze) Private Collection

For centuries, from Antiquity to the end of the 19th century, female sculptures populated gardens, churches, public squares, and interiors. Often, their bodies were an allegory of love and war, to magnify history or in reference to ancient times.

John de Andrea (b. 1941), Katie (Seated), 1998, Private Collection particulière

Starting from the early 20th century, women emancipated and strengthened, and artists accompanied this evolution by transforming their representation according to their thoughts, new materials, and their travels around the world. Moreover, the successive arrival of photography and cinematography further evolved the clichés related to beauty.

Robert Couturier (1905-2009), La Savonnette, 1994 (Bronze), Private Collection

While Niki de Saint Phalle’s colorful "Nanas" anticipated feminist liberation movements, the sculptures of virgins in churches remain imprisoned in a profoundly reductive role of motherhood. If Jeff Koons, through pink metal balloons, testifies to his vision of women through the prism of a modern-day Venus, Maillol sublimates their forms and cuts their arms in a clear reference to the Venus de Milo. Finally, when Manolo Valdés showcases his Meninas at fashion week in echo of Velázquez’s, John de Andrea, the great American hyperrealist sculptor of the 70s, works on flesh tones as the central element of attention.

Germaine Richier (1902-1959), Diabolo, 1950 (Bronze), Private Collection

Thus, whether they are naked or draped; in swimsuits or robes; made of bronze, resin, polyvinyl, or plaster, they all are, as Baudelaire wrote: "Belle, ô mortelle, comme un rêve de pierre" ("Beautiful, o mortal, as a dream of stone.")

An ecological visionary, the woman who was nicknamed the Sorcière royale (the royal witch), places as much value on animal life as she does on human life. Fascinated by insects, and all of those miniscule lives that she dissected and reproduced in her engravings, Germaine Richier announces the mutation of the human being with Nature. The artist's mythology is marked by a certain violence, its creatures alternating between prehistory and science-fiction. She creates transgender persons, with no identity, humanoids with grasshopper legs. Skeletal bodies where shreds of flesh are fossilised on bones to better express the passage from life to death.

« L’escrimeuse », Germaine Richier, bronze, private collection, 1943. / « L’escrimeuse avec masque », Germaine Richier, bronze, private collection, 1945.

« L’Homme de la nuit », Germaine Richier, bronze, private collection, 1954. © Antoine Roynier

« Le couple », Germaine Richier, bronze, private collection, 1956.

“L’Ouragane”, Germaine Richier, bronze, 179 x 67 x 43 cm, 1949. / “L’Orage”, Germaine Richier, bronze, 197 x 77 x 50 cm, 1947-1948.

“Le diabolo”, Germaine Richier, bronze, private collection, 1950.

Download the exhibition's catalog (in French)

"Ye Linghan, born in 1985 in Shanghai, is one of the most noticeable artists of the contemporary Chinese artistic world. He creates large paintings which immediately catch the eye with their swirling of multicoloured shapes, inside which appear pale, diaphanous and interlaced silhouettes evocative of human figures" - Serge Lemoine

From 18 to 24 October 2022, by appointment

More information and booking : 01 42 99 20 33 – adeturenne@artcurial.com

Artist JR answers the question "Can art save the world" by inviting citizens of the worls to gather around a message that means a lot to them and to participate in a monumental photographical installation : Inside Out.

Since its launch in 2011, 400,000 people from 138 countries have contributed to this worlwide work of art which is unique in its kind and is immortalized online at www.insideoutproject.net.

At the initiative of the Communauté de Communes (community of communes), the faces of 108 inhabitants from 62 villages and towns of the Pays de Valois share their love of their territory in a monumental installation deployed on 4 sites. They were selected by their mayors for the emotion they share in their communities.

This installation is the first operation of an project encompassing art parcours, graffiti and open-air architecture which will eventually cover the entire territory of the Pays de Valois.