PRESS kiT
DOSSIER DE PRESSE
The Fantastic and Wonderful World of
AND
a
Gianfranco iannuZZi - renato Gatto - massimiliano siccarDi Realisation
4 march 2017 - 7 january 2018
a
production
The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1490-1500, Jérôme Bosch (c.1450-1516), oil on canvas, Musée du Prado, Madrid, Espagne /
© Prado, Madrid, Spain / Bridgeman Images
CONTENTS
Page 5
Press release
Page 6
Itinierary of the immersive exhibition
Page 10
The team
Page 11
Questions to Gianfranco Iannuzzi, artistic director
Page 13
The short show: Georges Méliès, the « cinemagician »
Page 15
AMIEX® : promoting culture via a new channel
Page 16
Culturespaces, producer of AMIEX®
Page 17
The Carrières de Lumières, an inspiring place
Page 18
A new film on Jean Cocteau
Page 19
4 sculptures by Philip Haas pay tribute to Arcimboldo’s Four Seasons
Page 20
Partners
Page 21
Visuals available for the press
Page 23
Practical informations
Press kit I Carrières de Lumières I The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo. 3
PRESS RELEASE
THE FANTASTIC AND WONDERFUL WORLD OF
BOSCH, BRUEGHEL, ARCIMBOLDO.
CARRIÈRES DE LUMIÈRES I LES BAUX-DE-PROVENCE
4 MARCH 2017 - 7 JANUARY 2018
The Carrières de Lumières are holding their sixth exhibition of immersive art: ‘Bosch, Brueghel,
Arcimboldo : fantastique and merveilleux’ (‘The fantastic and wonderful world of Bosch, Bruegel,
and Arcimboldo’), from 4 March 2017 to 7 January 2018. Produced by Culturespaces and created by
Gianfranco Iannuzzi, Renato Gatto, and Massimiliano Siccardi, with the musical collaboration of Luca
Longobardi, this new show invites the spectators to explore the unbridled imagination of the animated
paintings of these great sixteenth-century masters.
From Hieronymus Bosch’s most emblematic triptychs, such as The Garden of Earthly Delights, The
Temptation of Saint Anthony, and The Hay Wagon, to Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s remarkable compositions
of flowers and fruit, and the village festivities depicted by the Bruegel dynasty, the Carrières de Lumières
embraces the fascinating worlds of the great masters who represented these animated scenes of life and the
duality of a world shifting between good and evil. Their work shares the same excellent facture and incredible
inventiveness. Bosch’s hallucinatory imagination and Arcimboldo’s highly creative and improbable faces are
complemented by the joyous triviality of Bruegel’s works, whose many figures are inspired by reality.
In this new immersive exhibition, which lasts around thirty minutes and includes more than 2,000 digital
images projected on a total surface area of 7,000 m2, the Carrières de Lumières will be filled with innumerable
fantastical creatures and allegorical figures. These are depicted spontaneously, and some are frightening
and others amusing and caught up in comic situations—all these characters are reflections of the viewers.
Man’s vanities, spirituality, pleasures, temptations, and vices are all evident in the landscapes painted with
an acute sense of detail by Bosch, Bruegel, and Arcimboldo. The show ends with Bosch’s wonderful Garden
of Earthly Delights, inviting visitors to enter a phantasmagorical world. The show’s soundtrack oscillates
between classical and contemporary music, playing, for example, the famous pieces Carmina Burana, by
Carl Orff, The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi, reinterpreted by Max Richter, the works of the Russian
composer Modeste Petrovitch Mussorgsky, and music by the British rock group Led Zeppelin.
Since 2012, Culturespaces has attracted more than 2.1 million visitors to the Carrières de Lumières
(Baux-de-Provence). In April 2018, Culturespaces will open the first venue devoted to immersive
exhibitions in Paris: The ATELIER DES LUMIERES. A total surface area of more than 3,300 m2 will
be devoted to AMIEX® projections, in a former nineteenth-century foundry right in the heart of the
eleventh arrondissement of Paris.
Press kit I Carrières de Lumières I The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo. 5
Itinerary of the immersive exhibition
Jérôme Bosch, La Création du monde du Jardin des délices, 1490-1500
Musée du Prado, Madrid, Espagne
© Prado, Madrid, Spain/Bridgeman Images
Le Jardin des délices, 1490-1500, de Jérôme Bosch (c.1450-1516), huile sur
toile, Musée du Prado, Madrid, Espagne
© Prado, Madrid, Spain / Bridgeman Images
INTRODUCTION
The Carrières de Lumières are plunged into darkness.
A globe appears, floating weightlessly beneath the
eye of the demiurge. Two inscriptions—‘Ipse dixit
et facta sunt’ (‘He spoke, and they were made’) and
‘Ipse mandavit et creata sunt’ (‘He commanded, and
they were created’) are suspended over the earth
invaded by the water.
This is how the show begins with the Creation of the
World (1504), which Hieronymus Bosch (1450–1516)
painted on the closed doors of one of his most famous
triptychs—The Garden of Earthly Delights.
The monochrome representation on the closed doors
gives no indication of the brightly coloured panels
inside the triptych; Bosch realised viewers would be
very surprised by the interior, and this is still the case
today.
Original music by Luca Longobardi
bosch's fantastic world:
the power of imagination
The clouds gather and roar, and end up invading
the entire area of the Carrières de Lumières. Largescale images of Bosch’s world are projected onto
the walls, and his fantastic creatures invade the
spaces as the storm rages. Monsters, Boschian
‘devilries’, and grimacing faces ... The Temptation
of Saint Anthony (1506) plunges the spectators into
a nightmarish vision in the which the grotesque
and the supernatural come together to torment the
damned souls.
The form of an immense open triptych appears
and is repeated on the walls. There is a close-up
of the themes that Bosch depicted in great detail:
the capital sins, the wheel, which, as it revolves like
a large clock face, arouses many temptations, and
The Hay Wagon, in which the artist denounces all of
the world’s perversions. In all his triptychs, there is
a constant tension between the aspiration to elevate
oneself on the one hand, and the threat of downfall
on the other. Between the two, a teeming world is
represented, filled with ephemeral pleasures and
vanities.
A mosaic of faces—that of Christ and his tormenters—
then appears, highlighting Bosch’s extraordinary
expressive power. As in Christ Carrying the Cross
(1515–1516), which consists of a mosaic of various
faces with the intense expressions of hatred, cruelty,
and unwholesome curiosity. Beams of light appear
from different places, spotlighting the various figures.
Pieter Brueghel le Jeune, Fête villageoise, huile sur toile, 17e siècle, Autun
© Musée Rolin, Autun, France / Bridgeman Image
Pieter Brueghel Le Jeune, Paysage d’hiver avec le massacre des innocents,
Collection Privée © Johnny Van Haeften Ltd., Londres/Bridgeman Images
In the flames of Hell, an army of diabolical creatures
set about tormenting people and musical instruments
have become instruments of torture. Bosch’s
masterful montages are represented on a large
scale on the walls, with his strange associations
that produced hybrid beings, somewhere between
mineral, vegetal, and animal.
This infernal landscape is ultimately replaced by
a Garden of Eden, with its psychedelic colours,
in which God introduces Eve to Adam. This is an
enchanting world in which Original Sin has not yet
perverted mankind.
With the arrival of the frost, graphically represented
on the walls of the Carrières de Lumières, winter
descends on these village scenes. The snow
traverses and covers these Flemish landscapes,
but the scenes remain animated. The Carrières de
Lumières are filled with the music of Vivaldi—in this
case, Winter, from The Four Seasons—interpreted
by the composer Max Richter.
Music: Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana
from the Bruegel dynastie to Arcimboldo:
everyday animated scenes
Spectators are gradually taken away from Bosch’s
hallucinatory world to the landscapes represented
in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Flemish
paintings, particularly those painted by the Bruegel
dynasty. Little by little, people appear in these
wooded, undulating landscapes, which often
feature a river. Villages emerge and the spectators
find themselves surrounded by many villagers who
appear to have been captured in the middle of going
about their daily activities: colourful markets, rural
festivities, banquets, weddings, and packed squares
animated by popular dances and playing children.
As in Bosch’s works, the faces are highly expressive,
almost caricatural, and the compositions are filled
with more or less humorous details that immerse us
in the daily life of the period, with its down-to-earth
and anecdotal aspects.
from the flemish painters to Arcimboldo:
colourful still lifes
The outline of a city emerges on the walls, and then
arcades appear and place the spectator in interior
scenes. The rural world has been replaced by a more
bourgeois world, full of objects linked to scientific
and artistic knowledge: measuring instruments and
musical instruments, art galleries, and so on. Via
a series of rich compositions in which the tables
are covered with dishes, the viewer is immersed in
allegories of meaning and the passage of time.
Music : Le Tron’s contemporary folk music
Press kit I Carrières de Lumières I The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo. 7
Frans Snyders, Le poissonnier, Musée de l’Ermitage, Saint-Pétersbourg, Russie
© akg-images
With the works of Frank Synders (1579–1657), a pupil
of Pieter Bruegel the Younger, wonderful paintings
of hunting still lifes, which were very much in vogue
in Flanders in the seventeenth century, are projected
onto the walls. An abundance of game, pheasants,
fish, and lobsters are piled on the tables alongside
fruits and vegetables liberally placed in every nook
and cranny in a more or less organised manner. The
abundance of food evokes the prosperity of Flanders
during this period.
Painted with a finesse that gives the objects an
almost photographic quality, these still lifes seem to
represent a meal that has suddenly been interrupted.
A plate balanced on the edge of a table, a glass
that has been knocked over … evoke the fragility
of life, as in the compositions of flowers that follow.
As if swept away by the wind, the petals fade away
and are replaced by the famous composed heads
of Arcimboldo, which radically renewed the still life
genre.
Music: Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons interpreted by
Max Richter
Spring, Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-93), oil on canvas © Real Academia de Bellas
Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Spain / Bridgeman Images
[Did you know?]
In 1563, Giuseppe Arcimboldo began work on
the first series of The Seasons. The work met with
great success. This marked the beginning of the
‘composed heads’, in which the physiognomy
of the portrayed figures was created by an
ingenious assembly of flowers, fruits, vegetables,
cucumbers, or animals. Like Hieronymus Bosch,
Arcimboldo enjoyed creating deformed portraits,
which were both illusionistic and fantastical, by
using objects in surprising ways. Arcimboldo was
part of the Mannerist movement. In his works
he represents the singularities of nature, the
grotesque, and even the monstrous. Maximilian
II of Habsburg commissioned a second series of
The Seasons in 1573. Executed in great detail, his
unique work paid tribute to the Flemish still-life
genre.
The Tower of Babel, 1563, Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525-1569), oil on canvas,
114x155 cm. Belgique, 16e century, Vienna / Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna,
Austria / © De Agostini Picture Library / G. Nimatallah / Bridgeman Images
The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1490-1500, Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516),
oil on canvas, Musée du Prado, Madrid, Espagne / © Prado, Madrid, Spain /
Bridgeman Images
The dramatic tension at the heart of
Pieter Bruegel the Elder's masterpieces
A wonderful end and climax to the show:
Eden and the Garden of Earthly Delights
The show then takes a look at the masterpieces of
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1569). The enormous
Tower of Babel (1563) appears before the eyes of the
spectators as if before those of King Nimrod, with
a multitude of arches piled on top of one another,
arranged in an upward spiral and built on unstable
foundations, on inclined ground. The surrounding
landscape is much more reminiscent of Flanders
than it is of Babylon in the biblical story. Illustrating
man’s vainglorious project to reach the sky, Pieter
Bruegel the Elder seems to have taken a particular
delight in highlighting the construction’s technical
aspects. Many scenes show the builders at work
on the construction, and the structural faults of the
tower doomed to failure. This allegory of human
arrogance challenging the divine is followed by a
projected image of Christ Carrying the Cross (1564),
The Triumph of Death (1562), and The Fall of the
Rebel Angels (1562), in which the fallen angels are
thrown upon fantastical creatures. Like Bosch and
Arcimboldo, Pieter Bruegel the Elder immediately
holds the viewer’s attention and immerses the viewer
in a whirlwind of so many details and figures that one
can look at them endlessly and discover something
new on each occasion.
Harmony is restored with, in particular, a
representation of Eden by Jan Brueghel the Elder
(1568–1625). Lush vegetation provides an idyllic
setting in which numerous fantastic and wonderful
animals flourish. A swarm of butterflies flies over the
walls of the Carrières de Lumières, leading on to the
final part of the show devoted to Bosch’s greatest
masterpiece: the Garden of Earthly Delights—a
fertile garden in which all the human activities seem
to be driven by the pursuit of pleasure.
Music: Tribute to Led Zeppelin/Stairway to Heaven
Music: Pictures from an Exhibition by Mussorgsky,
orchestrated by Maurice Ravel
Press kit I Carrières de Lumières I The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo. 9
production team
Artistic direction: Gianfranco Iannuzzi
Design and co-production: Gianfranco Iannuzzi, Renato Gatto, Massimiliano Siccardi
Video animation: Massimiliano Siccardi, Ginevra Napoleoni
Composition and musical arrangement : Luca Longobardi
Produced by Culturespaces
Gianfranco IANNUZZI
Gianfranco Iannuzzi designs both spaces and sound and light shows. He
transforms venues, both indoors and outdoors, through his creations. Based
on the image, sound and light, which he uses as the vectors of sensory
expression, he is the author of a large number of immersive audio-visual
performances.
Renato GATTO
Renato Gatto is a teacher of theatre and assistant director. His approach is
centred on the connection between the voice and the body. He is the director
of the Accademia Teatrale Veneta, a professional school of acting in Venice,
where he also teaches classes on vocal technique. He is also involved with the
educational programme of the La Fenice Theatre in Venice.
Massimiliano SICCARDI
Massimiliano Siccardi is a videographer and multimedia artist.
His work, both installations and performances, incorporates the use of new
technologies. He also explores the animated image and includes it in his artistic
and theatrical performances.
Ginevra NAPOLEONI
Ginevra Napoleoni is an artist who explores video art in her work, which
combines painting, video installations and live art performances. She also
creates virtual sets for the stage.
Luca LONGOBARDI
Luca Longobardi is a pianist and composer. He is renowned for having
incorporated electronic music into a more formal, classical vocabulary or
register. He composes mainly for contemporary dance performances, art
performances and multi-media installations.
QUESTIONS TO GIANFRANCO IANNUZZI, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Bosch, Brueghel, and Arcimboldo … what is the show about?
It is a journey into Flemish painting that takes us from the world of the fantastic and grotesque fantasies of
the Middle Ages to the wonderful landscapes and floral works of the Baroque.
The scenario and soundtrack are conceptually based on the structure of the triptych that characterised
Bosch’s work and times.
When closed, a triptych reveals nothing of the wealth of imagery contained inside.
When opened, it provides a wonderful insight into the eternal battle between good and evil, and the angels
and demons.
Opening a triptych is like crossing the threshold of an enchanted world in which Renato Gatto, Massimiliano
Siccardi, and I wanted to immerse the general public.
The introduction was inspired by the Creation of the World represented on the closed panels of The Garden
of Earthly Delights.
We have deconstructed and reconstructed the rich and captivating world of Bosch, Arcimboldo, and the
Bruegel dynasty to provide a theatrical interpretation of it.
The first part of the show highlights Bosch’s world with its disturbing and fantastical figures.
The second part studies the rural life and Baroque painting of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in a
journey that takes spectators from Bruegel to Arcimboldo, and includes the other artists in this very productive
period of Flemish painting.
The last part takes a look at the most dramatic and allegorical elements of the works of Bruegel the Elder,
by addressing major biblical themes via The Construction of the Tower of Babel and The Fall of the Rebel
Angels.
The concluding part of the show takes a look at Bosch’s masterpiece The Garden of Earthly Delights, which
is viewed from a contemporary perspective, like a big rock concert.
Which adjectives would you use to describe this new immersive exhibition?
It is amazing and wonderful, like the figures that inhabit the world of Hieronymus Bosch, and which are also
sometimes quite disturbing.
It is full of surprises and colourful, as was the end of the Middle Ages in northern Europe.
It is a living exhibition, as are the masterpieces that have come down to us through the centuries without
losing any of their power and brilliance.
Which is your favourite part?
Without doubt the final part. The choice of using Led Zepplin as the soundtrack for this painting—a choice
that some people may see as quite audacious—provides a contemporary interpretation of The Garden of
Earthly Delights, five centuries after its creation.
The words in the song Stairway to Heaven go surprisingly well with the painting’s theme. They talk about the
quest for hedonism, which is a recurrent theme in the history of art and the history of mankind. It takes the
final part of the show beyond time and space—a dance of figures in an enchanted garden with incredible
scenery, inhabited by wonderful creatures.
Press kit I Carrières de Lumières I The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo. 11
Have there been any specific technological improvements?
For the first time, the Carrières de Lumières have been equipped with laser video projectors. They provide
greater luminosity, power, and contrast, revealing in a very fine way all the details and accurately reproducing
the original colours of the many chosen works.
On what basis were the pieces of music chosen to accompany the works?
The choices were made according to the principle of the triptych and we have chosen three deliberately
different works with, firstly, the modern cantata for choir and orchestra by Carl Hoff, Carmina Burana, for the
introduction to the phantasmagorical world of Bosch.
The Four Seasons by Vivaldi reinterpreted by Max Richter then accompanies the Flemish rural scenes and
still lifes.
And then the immersion in the masterpieces of Pieter Bruegel the Elder is heightened by the symphony by
Mussorgsky, orchestrated by Maurice Ravel.
The entire show is organised between an introduction, for which Luca Longobardi has written an original
composition, and a final part, with a 2012 live version of Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin, accompanied
by an orchestra and choir.
Our show—this wonderful and fantastic journey—is both visually and musically captivating!
A SHORT SHOW: GEORGES MÉLIÈS, THE 'CINEMAGICIAN'
After the immersive exhibition ‘Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo. Fantastique et merveilleux (‘The Fantastic and
Wonderful World of Bosch, Bruegel, and Arcimboldo’), there is a screening of ‘Georges Méliès, le cinémagicien’
(‘Georges Méliès: the “Cinemagician”’), a shorter show that uses all the artistic and technological potential of
the AMIEX® concept. Made by Cosmo AV from images and film extracts, it was produced with the assistance
of the Association Cinémathèque Méliès.
The short six-minute film pays tribute to Georges Méliès (1861–1938), a pioneering film-maker and the father
of special effects. A contemporary of the Lumière brothers, the illusionist recognised the future potential of
their cinématographe (an early moving image projector) and was one of the first to use it for artistic purposes.
He made over six hundred films that explored fantastical and fantasy worlds with the help of many special
effects.
In this voyage of discovery into Méliès’ poetic and surrealist world, the spectators in the Carrières de Lumières
discover his workshop, a veritable hotchpotch of bits and bobs where the craziest dreams take shape, climb
aboard a space rocket, land on the moon, explore the North Pole, plunge into the abysses, get lost in the
centre of the earth, journey right into the caves of Hell, and so on. During this magical journey, they encounter
monsters and fantastical creatures and travel through ever-changing landscapes created by Méliès. This
reveals all the inventiveness of this master of illusion, who hails his audience at the end of the show.
© Cosmo AV
Extracts from some of his most well-known films (such as A Trip to the Moon, Conquest of the North Pole, and
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), emblematic creations in his oeuvre (such as his famous moon),
film screenshots and family photos, and portraits of Méliès are projected onto the walls of the Carrières de
Lumières. This reveals all the genius of a man who so successfully empowered art with technology.
A FEW WORDS ON COSMO AV
Cosmo AV is a creative studio that specialises in video mapping. Both a content creator and and an artistic
consultancy, we place the spectacular at the heart of our creative process and generate emotion through
metamorphoses.
Cosmo AV is internationally recognised for its creative work, as part of its participation in major events,
numerous live broadcasts, and cultural heritage projects.
Possessing artistic and technical expertise that is constantly evolving, Cosmo AV is a major actor in global
events and is constantly working on new challenges presented by monumental projection projects.
Cosmo AV’s has recently worked with Le Puy du Fou theme park, the company Dance Open Ballet Festival,
and the Olympic Games Committees.
For further information visit: www.cosmosav.com
Press kit I Carrières de Lumières I The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo. 13
GEORGES MÉLIÈS, IN A FEW WORDS
Recognised as a fantastic film-maker by the surrealist André Breton, Georges Méliès (1861–1938) is an
international figure in the history of cinema. Between 1896 and 1912, he made 520 films; he wrote the
screenplays, produced the films, and was often the main actor. As of 1896, he invented all sorts of
cinematographic tricks based on special effects and explored all the film genres: fiction films, films showing
reconstituted events, comedy films and melodramas, advertising films, and fantasy films. His film A Trip to
the Moon (Voyage dans la lune, 1902), the first science-fiction film, achieved international success.
What were the secrets of his success? A talented painter, draughtsman, and photographer, he was also
a talented illusionist and, in 1888, he became director of the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, a major Parisian
establishment that specialised in magic shows. Thanks to cinematography, he created and showed audiences
a wonderful world inhabited by creatures from his rich imagination: mythical characters, butterfly women,
guardian angels, malicious and menacing demons, ghosts, and other phantasmagorical figures. In 1897, he
built the first studio that was entirely equipped ‘to turn the wildest dreams and the most improbable inventions
of the imagination into reality’, as he later wrote, in 1907, in a text in which he proclaimed his passion for ‘the
most attractive and fascinating of all the arts’ and established himself as the creator of ‘fantastic views’.
BIOGRAPHICAL EVENTS
8 December 1861: Georges Méliès is born in Paris.
1884: sent to London by his father to be trained in sales and learn English, he uses this as an opportunity to
frequent a well-known magic theatre and become a magician. He develops relationships with artistes and
professionals in the entertainment industry.
1885: he marries Eugénie Génin, with whom he has two children, Georgette and André.
1886: he works as an illusionist at the Musée Grévin and the Galerie Vivienne under the pseudonym of
Docteur Mélius.
1891: he founds the Académie de Prestidigitation that gives an official status to illusionists, previously
considered as nomadic workers and peddlers by the authorities.
28 December 1895: he goes to see the Lumière brothers’ first public screening.
1896: he makes his own motion picture camera, the ‘Kinetograph’, with which he shoots his first specialeffects film, The Vanishing Lady.
1897: he builds the first studio in the world that is entirely devoted to film-making.
1902: his film Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) is an international success.
1904: Georges Méliès founds the Chambre Syndicale de la Prestidigitation, of which he is president until his
death.
1907: he publishes a fundamental text that elevates cinematography (which is mainly a fairground attraction
at this time) to the rank of an art; he sets out his aesthetic conception and his practice of ‘animated views’.
1912: he makes his last film, Le Voyage de la Famille Bourrichon (The Bourrichon Family Trip). Between 1896
and 1912, he makes 520 films. His last films are not as successful as he expected, and his financial situation
becomes critical.
1913: after his wife’s death, he closes the studios.
1917–1922: he opens the Théâtre des Variétés Artistiques, which is run by his daughter.
1931: he is awarded the Croix de la Légion d’Honneur by Louis Lumière.
21 January 1938: Georges Méliès dies in Paris.
For further information visit: http://www.cinemathequemelies.eu/
AMIEX®: PROMOTING CULTURE VIA A NEW CHANNEL
AMIEX® TECHNOLOGY
Since they opened in 2012, the Carrières de Lumières have been a wonderful experimental site for
Culturespaces, which has introduced an innovative concept for cultural diffusion: AMIEX® (Art &
Music Immersive Experience).
AMIEX® are immersive art exhibitions that are unique, based on thousands of images of works of art that
have been digitised, projected in very high resolution, and animated to the rhythm of music, as a highly
poetic scenario is projected. AMIEX® exhibitions are perfectly adapted to the venues in which they are held,
thanks to the installation of high-tech video projectors and a spatialised sound system.
“ This sophisticated system took 2 years of development work in order to get the moving images to seamlessly
integrate with the audio and mould perfectly to the venue’s layout,” explains Bruno Monnier, CEO and Founder
of Culturespaces .
In 2017, Culturespaces (in partnership with Barco) has equipped the Carrières de Lumières with around
one hundred cutting edge laser phosphor video projectors, to ensure an optimal experience. Visitors to the
Carrières de Lumières are thereby completely immersed in the image, and embark on a fascinating journey
right into the heart of various artistic worlds. Right from the outset, the technology is concealed and the
artistic experience heightened, allowing the sensations to take over.
Key Figures
Surface area for projectio : 7000 m²
Height of projection: 4 à 16 mètres
Technical equipment in partnership with Barco : 100 video projectors, 27 speakers
Number of images projected per show: environ 2000
ALREADY OVER 2,1 MILLIONS SPECTAToRS At the CARRIÈRES DE LUMIÈRES
2016
2015
Chagall, Midsummer Michelangelo,
night’s dreams
Leonardo da Vinci,
560 000 visitors Raphael.
Giants of the
Renaissance
513 000 visitors
2014
2013
2012
Klimt et Vienne,
A century of gold
and colours
483 000 visitors
Monet, Renoir,
Chagall
Journeys through
the Mediterranean
373 000 visitors
Gauguin - Van
Gogh, lpainters of
colour
239 000 visitors
Press kit I Carrières de Lumières I The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo. 15
CULTURESPACES, PRODUCER OF AMIEX®
‘Our aim is to help public institutions present their heritage and develop their reputation in cultural circles and
among tourists. We also aim to make access to culture more democratic and help our children discover our
history and our civilisation in remarkable cultural sites’
Bruno Monnier, CEO and Founder of Cutlurespaces
Culturespaces produces and manages, with an ethical and professional approach, monuments, museums
and prestigious historic sites entrusted to it by public bodies and local authorities. With 25 years of experience
and more than 2,7 millions visitors every year, Culturespaces is the leading private organization managing
French monuments and museums, and one of the leading European players in cultural tourism.
Are managed by Culturespaces:
- Musée Jacquemart-André,Paris (since 1996),
- Musée Maillol, Paris (since 2016)
- Hôtel de Caumont - Centre d’Art, Aix-en-Provence (since 2015)
- Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (since 1992),
- Château des Baux-de-Provence (depuis 1993),
- Carrières de Lumières (depuis 2012)
- Nîmes Amphitheatre, Maison Carrée, Tour Magne (since 2006),
- Roman Theatre and Art and History Museum of Orange (since 2002)
- Cité de l’Automobile, Mulhouse (since 1999)
- le Musée Maillol à Paris (depuis 2016).
Aware that our heritage must be preserved for future generations, Culturespaces contributes every year to
financing restoration programmes for the monuments and collections it has been entrusted to look after.
More generally, Culturespaces is responsible for upgrading spaces and collections, welcoming the general
public, managing staff and all services, organising cultural activities and temporary exhibitions and promoting
sites at national and international level, with efficient and responsible management methods certified ISO
9001
To ensure that visits are always a pleasure, the Culturespaces teams place quality of reception and cultural
enrichment at the heart of all their services to visitors.
THE CARRIÈRES DE LUMIÈRES, AN INSPIRING PLACE
The ‘Val d’Enfer’ is a mysterious place just a stone’s throw from Les Baux de Provence, in the heart of the
Alpilles.
This valley with outstanding solid mineral deposits has long inspired artists. It provides the setting for Dante’s
Divine Comedy, and Gounod created his opera Mireille here. Later, Cocteau came to film The Testament of
Orpheus in these very quarries.
The Carrières du Val d’Enfer are a classified site.
BACK ON THE HISTORY OF THE PLACE…
Stone working
The Carrières du Val d’Enfer quarry were created over the years for extracting the white limestone. Largescale stone production in the Saint-Rémy area forced quarry-workers to change mining techniques using
hoists and pits leading to the surface. This is why quarries were opened in this part of the Alpilles. In 1935,
economic competition from modern materials led to the closure of the quarries.
The transformation of the Carrières
The Carrières were given a new life thanks to the visionary genius of Jean Cocteau in the 1960s. He was
enchanted by the beauty of the place and its surroundings, and decided to film The Testament of Orpheus
here in 1959.
This transformation was continued in 1977 with the creation of a new project inspired by the research of
Joseph Svoboda 1, one of the great scenographers of the second half of the twentieth century, and destinated
to enhance this area: the huge rock walls are perfect backdrops for a new kind of sound and light show which
fully involves the audience.
For over 30 years, the Carrières du Val d’Enfer have hosted these audio visual shows.
In 2011, the town of Les Baux-de-Provence asked Culturespaces to take over management of its famous
Carrières under a public service concession agreement.
Thus, the Carrières de Lumières are to be discovered since March 2012.
The Carrières de Lumières are now established as a cultural entertainment site, the programming
of which brings together major names in the history of art and multimedia, a cultural centre that has
become essential for the region.
Joseph Svoboda had been working on a scenography idea using projected images as early as 1942. The ideas he was
developing were well ahead of the technologies available in his time. In 1967, he produced installations for the Czechoslovakian
pavilion at the Montreal exhibition including synchronised images from 11 cinema projectors and 28 slide projectors which
were projected onto a large number of surfaces.
1
Press kit I Carrières de Lumières I The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo. 17
A new film on JEAN COCTEAU
In 2017, the Carrières de Lumières is presenting a new film (in the Salle Cocteau) directed by Nicolas Patrzynski
and produced by Hugues Charbonneau, with the support of the Comité Cocteau. This sixteen-minute film
retraces the life of Jean Cocteau, and pays tribute to this artistic genius, whose work is linked to this site.
‘I based the film on 150 archive documents—manuscripts, drawings, films, and videos—that enable the
viewers to be fully immersed in Cocteau’s world’, says Nicolas Patrzynski, a film-maker who specialises in
the audiovisual and digital valorisation of historical heritage. ‘I wanted to demonstrate the great skill and talent
of Cocteau, who experimented with all kinds of artistic expression: writing, drawing, pottery, stained-glass
windows, and jewellery—he worked with just about everything.’ In addition to being a multitalented artist,
Cocteau was also a visionary. The documentary attempts to convey his poetic visions.
‘I remain with you’: Jean Cocteau’s epitaph is particularly significant with regard to these quarries in the heart
of the Alpilles that he found so inspiring.
Jean Cocteau et le Sphinx dans le Testament d’Orphée aux Baux de Provence 1959»
© Atelier Lucien Clergue - SAIF
"THE FOUR SEASONS"
INSTALLATIONS BY PHILIP HAAS PAY A TRIBUTE TO ARCIMBOLDO
FROM MAY TO DECEMBER 2017, FOUR ENORMOUS SCULPTURES WILL BE ON DISPLAY IN THE CHÂTEAU
DES BAUX-DE-PROVENCE
Between May and December, the Château des Baux-de-Provence will display four monumental sculptures
created by the artist Philip Haas in an exhibition entitled ‘Les Quatre Saisons : Hommage à Arcimboldo’
(‘The Four Seasons’). Hence, there is a link between the exhibition at the Château des Baux-de-Provence
and the immersive art exhibition in the Carrières de Lumières: ‘Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo : Fantastique et
merveilleux’ (‘The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Bruegel, and Arcimboldo’).
More than five metres high and weighing over 400 kilos, each of these sculptures with their giant heads
were inspired by The Seasons paintings executed by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527–1583). Whether working on
a painting, sculpture, or film, Philip Haas is fascinated by the idea of transforming the scale of the elements
that modify the viewer’s perspective. Winter was the first sculpture exhibited in 2010 and 2011 in the National
Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Piazza del Duomo in Milan, and the gardens of the Château of Versailles.
Since 2012, Philip Haas’s Four Seasons have moved from one exceptional site to another. In 2016, they were
exhibited at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville (Arkansas), followed by the Hillwood Museum
and Gardens in Washington DC. Once they have returned from the United States they will be exhibited
together in the Château des Baux-de-Provence.
© Philip Haas
Philip Haas, born in 1954, is a contemporary American artist and film-maker. He has received awards from
the Guggenheim Foundation for his documentaries on artists such as Gilbert and George, David Hockney,
the Aboriginal painters of Australia, and the gravestone carvers of Madagascar. In 1995, he was nominated
at the Cannes Film Festival for his feature film Angels and Insects.
Press kit I Carrières de Lumières I The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo. 19
PARTNERS
www.barco.com
www.20minutesfr
http://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr
/provence-alpes-cote-d-azur/
www.lejournaldesarts.fr
www.culturebox.francetvinfo.fr
www.telerama.fr
www.francebleu.fr
VISUALS AVAILABLE FOR THE PRESS
Visual : Simulation # 1 Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo
© Gianfranco Iannuzzi - Renato Gatto - Massimiliano Siccardi / Nuit de Chine.
From the left to the right : 1/ Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Spring, c. 16th, Private Collection Photo © Agnew’s, London / Bridgeman Images.
2/ Pieter Brueghel l’ancien, Tower of Babel, 1563, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienne,
Autriche - © Kunsthistorisches Museum / Bridgeman Images
3/Jérôme Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1490-1510, Madrid, Museo Nacional
del Prado - © Prado, Madrid, Spain / Bridgeman Images
Visual : Simulation # 2 Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo © Gianfranco Iannuzzi - Renato Gatto - Massimiliano Siccardi.
1/ Pieter Brueghel Le Jeune, A Wedding Feast, C 17th, Johnny van Haeften Gallery, London, UK – © Bridgeman Images. 2/ Pieter Brueghel Le Jeune, Rustic Wedding, detail of
people dancing, C 17th, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, Belgium – © Bridgeman Images. 3/ Jan Brueghel l’Ancien, River Landscape, Roy Miles Fine Paintings - © Roy
Miles Fine Paintings / Bridgeman Images. 4/ Joos De Momper, Figures in a landscape with village and castle beyond (panel), Private collection, Photo © Bonhams, London, UK /
Bridgeman Images. 5/ Pieter Brueghel l’ancien, Tower of Babel, 1565, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands, © Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam,
Netherlands / Bridgeman Images. 6/ Pieter Brueghel le Jeune, The Wedding Supper, c. 1568, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, Belgium - © Museum voor Schone Kunsten,
Ghent, Belgium / Bridgeman Images. 7/ Pieter Brueghel le Jeune, Peasants Dancing at a Village Wedding, Collection particulière - © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images . 8/ Pieter
Brueghel Le Jeune, A Wedding Feast, C 17th, Johnny van Haeften Gallery, London, UK – © Bridgeman Images
Visual : Simulation # 3 Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo © Gianfranco Iannuzzi - Renato Gatto - Massimiliano Siccardi
Jérôme Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1490-1510, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado - © Prado, Madrid, Spain / Bridgeman
Press kit I Carrières de Lumières I The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo. 21
The Garden of Delights, 1490-1500, de Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516), oil on canvas, Musée du Prado, Madrid, Espagne / © Prado, Madrid, Spain / Bridgeman Images
Fête villageoise, Pieter Bruegel The Younger (c.1564-1638), oil on canvas,
17e century, Autun / © Musée Rolin, Autun, France / Bridgeman Image
Spring, Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-93), oil on canvas / © Real Academia
de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Spain / Bridgeman Images
The Tower of Babel, 1563, de Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569), oil on
canvas, 114x155 cm. Belgique, 16eme century, Vienna / Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna, Austria / © De Agostini Picture Library / G. Nimatallah /
Bridgeman Images
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
ADDRESS
Route de Maillane - 13520 Les Baux-de-Provence
http://carrieres-lumieres.com
RATES
Individual rate: 12 € / Reduced rate: 10 €
Summer individual rate in July and August: 13 € / Reduced rate: 10 €
Offers for families: free entry for the second child aged 7 to 17 when two adults and one child entries have
been bought
Pass Provence : Carrières de Lumières + Château des Baux-de-Provence
With activities at the Château (from April to September) :18 € I Reduced rate : 14,5 €
Without activities at the Château (from October to March) : 16 € I Reduced rate : 12,5 €
OPENING HOURS
January, March, November, December: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
April, May, June, September, October: 9.30 a.m.-7 p.m.
July and August: 9.30 a.m.-7.30 p.m.
The book and gift shop is open during the Carrières’ opening hours.
ACCESS
Carrières de Lumières are located 800 m from the Château des Baux-de-Provence,
15 km north-east of Arles and 30 km south of Avignon.
Carrières de Lumières are accessible to visitors in wheelchairs.
AND AROUND AT THE CHÂTEAU DES BAUX-DE-PROVENCE
From May to December 2017, 4 monumental sculptures ny Philip Haas pay tribute to Arcimboldo’s Four
Seasons.
PRESS CONTACTS
Agence Claudin Colin Communication I Christelle Maureau
[email protected] I T. +33 (0)1 42 72 60 01
Carrières de Lumières
https://www.facebook.com/CarrieresDeLumieres
@Culturespaces #ChagallCarrieres
instagram.com/culturespaces
https://twitter.com/culturespaces
Press kit I Carrières de Lumières I The Fantastic and Wonderful World of Bosch, Brueghel, Arcimboldo. 23