2023-08-13 10:07:14
He marked the collective imagination of the last century with his illustrations and television animations. Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon is at the heart of the new exhibition at the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans in the Doubs. Two hundred works lent by the Folon foundation retrace more than 50 years of artistic quest.
For millions of viewers, Jean-Michel Folon (1934-2005), it was first of all these little gentlemen in overcoats and hats who for 8 years, from 1975 to 1983, punctuated the programs of Antenne 2. A credits unforgettable ending.
However, his work is not limited to television. It is much more extensive. There Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senansa former factory listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, offers an exceptional setting for the exhibition Folon’s world. Two hundred works lent by the Folon Foundation bear witness to the richness and eclecticism of the Belgian artist.
France 3 Franche-Comte
The sculptures welcome the visitor as soon as he enters the gardens. The Traveller, Les Pensées, Escape, so many creations that everyone can touch and appropriate as they please. This is the case of I remember, bronze made in 2003 by Jean-Michel Folon, two years before his death. Sitting on a bench, a man wearing a round hat and wearing a long coat holds a book in front of him. The visitor is invited to sit down for a moment at his side.
Dialogue with the natural environment
“It’s rare, emphasizes Hubert Tassy, director of the Royal Saltworks, himself seated on the bench designed by Folon. Often a sculpture, we have to look at it from afar, there we can completely inhabit it. We thought a lot with the Folon Foundation about the location of this sculpture, and then between the chestnut trees it seemed almost obvious to us.”
Poster of the exhibition “The world according to Folon” extended until November 19, 2023. (Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans)
25 sculptures are thus scattered in the gardens of La Saline. Folon sought this dialogue with the natural environment, taking advantage of the effects of rain and sun, the play of clouds and the seasons. According to him, at each hour of the day, the light reveals another palette and a new relief. According to Hubert Tassy, the Belgian artist liked to borrow the words of Marguerite Yourcenar: “The day a statue is finished, its life in a sense begins”she said.
Against the prevailing artistic dictates
Inside, the exhibition explores other facets of this jack-of-all-trades artist. The Indian inks of his beginnings, the photos, the watercolours, the serigraphs, the militant posters. The diversity of the exhibited works illustrates the curiosity and the immense freedom of the man who was in turn draftsman, illustrator, painter, poet and sculptor, going against the current of the dominant artistic diktats.
We discover for those who do not know him, all his sensitivity around today’s issues, global warming, biodiversity which are themes that we also develop here at La Saline. Its humanist side is also very much in line with the thinking of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, the historical creator of La Saline.
Hubert Tassy
Director of the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans
Folon’s world, these are 50 years of creations and interrogations on the human condition and on the evolution of the world where we regularly find and in different forms this emblematic character with the round hat and the long coat. An artistic and poetic quest to discover until November 19, 2023 at the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans. The exhibition initially scheduled until November 5, 2023, is extended by two weeks.
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