April thirteen. Just a note here about the ongoing deterioration of the Crestet Centre d’Art. It is still going on, twenty years on. The set up closed suddenly in 2003 when all its state funding was withdrawn and one of the finest small galleries in France was lost. On the thirteenth inst. we took a favoured walk of ours into the forests above Crestet which can start conveniently close by the Centre as it still has a pull-in on which to leave the motor.
We first visited the Centre in 1996, then dropped in whenever we were holidaying or passing close by. Some singular exhibitions were staged therein: they used to have artists’ residencies in the summer with rather lovely girls (art students, you know the type) taking care of the place and wafting around the galleries to answer any eejit questions… there were sculptures to find in the forest grounds too, kinetic art, even living art, etc etc – we loved it.
I have always been very taken by the building as a whole and in my capacity as a design educator (honest, I was once) je got myself on the centre’s circulation list, receiving invites to various private views, posters, and various mail-shots.
An important aspect of what went on at the Crestet Centre d’Art, for me at least, was the way complex creative and experimental artistic ideas were made accessible to all. Adam growing up took to the creative output with enthusiasm. It was a joy to see. I think it is fair to say it contributed. To his own creative awareness that is.
I have always been very taken by the building as a whole and in my capacity as a design educator (honest, I was once) je got myself on the centre’s circulation list, receiving invites to various private views, posters, and various mail-shots.
In 2003 I wrote to the director to seek a permit to explore/record the upper terraces, balconies and spaces not normally open to the public —because, we were advised, the spaces lacked any safety structures like guard and handrails, so we could do, but at our own risk: I got the green light. We were indeed given the freedom of the place when we turned up that summer, ID in hand, but also got to hear from the admin office at the Centre the shocking news that the place was to close within weeks as funding was being cut and all personnel were being thrown out of their jobs.
Nevertheless we made the most of our privileged visit to the Centre d’Art, but only just in time. How fortuitous I had had the presence of mind to make the approaches for unfettered access when I did!
The place closed half way through an exhibition in fact just a week or two later, since when it has remained closed, albeit with a caretaker for some years, but now retired, gone, and whose tied house is empty and derelict.
In the years thereafter, a strange ghostly sound-track emanated from within the building, seemingly of a faux conference or lecture, with speakers addressing an audience in muffled tones, laughter, applause, question-and-answer etc (plenaries, tea and coffee?), on a loop to give the impression that the place was still being used.Which it clearly wasn’t. This ran on for years and seems to have worked: we have not seen any sign of breaking and entering, vandalism, as yet… The windows stayed clean for a long time (the caretaker?) but otherwise there has been little sign of life. Sometime since our last inspection the elegant cypresses growing in the interior courtyards have been axed and removed, who knows what other plant life may have come and gone? Who has got the keys??? Well someone has, clearly.
No sign of the centre being brought back into use either. There still is, or were, some artworks inside, (and massive stone sculptures outside, the work of the founder) when we last trotted down the hill from the pull-in on the forest road to peep through any of the few accessible windows. All the local signage has now gone. The building's facias are looking decidedly grubby, even in need of patching, as you can determine from the banner photo at the top of this piece. Exterior substantial stone brutalist sculptures still sit it out, round the back, too heavy to move economically no doubt, and/or nowhere to go.
It is a crying shame. One of my most favourite buildings and it is fading away through shocking neglect while the département and the state bicker over it, seemingly [stop press, breaking news: the assembly is up for sale, but just who is selling it remains obscure]. Disgraceful, I pay my taxes here as well you know. I’d tell you a lot more about this situation but I don’t wish to introduce what might be considered tedium into this post… and anyway, the story of the place is both complicated and often in French (online). Enough to say it came into state ownership in 1985 and was abandoned and shut down in 2003 –– as I think I have already made clear.
No sign of the centre being brought back into use either. There still is, or were, some artworks inside, (and massive stone sculptures outside, the work of the founder) when we last trotted down the hill from the pull-in on the forest road to peep through any of the few accessible windows. All the local signage has now gone. The building's facias are looking decidedly grubby, even in need of patching, as you can determine from the banner photo at the top of this piece. Exterior substantial stone brutalist sculptures still sit it out, round the back, too heavy to move economically no doubt, and/or nowhere to go.
It is a crying shame. One of my most favourite buildings and it is fading away through shocking neglect while the département and the state bicker over it, seemingly [stop press, breaking news: the assembly is up for sale, but just who is selling it remains obscure]. Disgraceful, I pay my taxes here as well you know. I’d tell you a lot more about this situation but I don’t wish to introduce what might be considered tedium into this post… and anyway, the story of the place is both complicated and often in French (online). Enough to say it came into state ownership in 1985 and was abandoned and shut down in 2003 –– as I think I have already made clear.
Often we had the galleries to ourselves: nice for us but perhaps not for the health of the centre in the long run. There were no charges that I can recall (and I'm a strong advocate of free access to the arts as you will know) but even so the footfall perhaps was disappointing. Its isolation in the forest above Crestet may have been its principle Achilles heel.
The Centre was designed and built by Bruno Stahly (architect) for parents Claude and François Stahly. They must have had a franc or two. Read all about it on the link.
Fancy buying the Crestet Centre d'Art that was? Here's a link!
It's a snip.
It is listed… as it indeed should be…
… so I won't be touching it with a barge pole……
