Les Nouveaux commanditaires

Nya Uppdragsgivare
Nuovi Committenti
Nuevos Comanditarios
Taiteen Uudet Tukijat
De Nieuwe Opdrachtgevers
New Patrons
Die Neue Auftraggeber
Komanditario berriak

La Chapelle du Souvenir
John M Armleder

Patrons - Mister Begat, President of the Association du Souvenir de la Charcuterie Française; Mister Cottenceau; Mister Vigneau, affiliate member of the Confédération nationale de la Charcuterie; Father Bénéteau, Superior General of the Oratory of Jesus
Mediator - Mari Linnman (3CA)
Supporters - Fondation de France, Mairie de Paris, Association du Souvenir de la Charcuterie Française
Église Saint-Eustache 1, rue Montmartre 75001 Paris, 2000
The Charcutiers’s chapel has been invested in by the charcutiers corporation (pork butcher’s business) since the seventeenth century. After a fire that destroyed a part of the downspace, the Association of the Souvenir of the French Charcuterie, directed by Hilaire Bégat and accompanied by father Gérard Bénéteau, wanted to commemorate the history and memory of the chapel by commissioning an artwork by a contemporary artist.

Inaugurated in 2000, John Armleder’s piece of work consists of different detachable elements that respect the principles of the historical buildings. Two paintings called “Pour Paintings”, have been made in the church and settled beneath two other paintings of Théodore Pils. A glass table, put beneath the main stained glass, bears a glass pole. On the wood floor, a  line of polish nails in brass extends the ambulatory, following the squaring of the marble slabs. A blue video projection surmounts the table.

The artwork engages a dialogue with pre-established forms through a particular set of colors and lights. In one full day, the natural light filtered by the colors of the stained glass moves and is reflected in different parts of the chapel.

During the Charcutier’s annual mass, the names of the pork butchers who died during the year are inscribed on a paper and put into the glass pole. Sharing the ceremony, the piece of art achieves its symbolic dimension, by keeping and rendering visible the memory of the corporation. As years go by, papers are accumulated into the pole and testify to an opening work of art, in constant evolution.