A visit to the Musée départemental d’art contemporain in Rochechouart is what we Americans call a two-fer or maybe even a three- or four-fer.
Rochechouart can boast: (No. 1) an impressive contemporary art museum, (No. 2) housed in a thousand-year-old castle (entirely rebuilt in the Middle Ages and 16th century), (No. 3) located in beautiful village in the Haute-Vienne department of Limousin, and which is (No. 4) located in a huge crater formed by possibly the largest meteor to hit the earth, some 200 million years ago. The area in which Rochechouart is located is called Pays du Météorite — clearly this celestial event had a huge impact on the area, although no geological evidence (space rock) remains.
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| Château de Rochechouart |
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| Courtyard of Musée départemental d’art contemporain in Rochechouart |
With its views over the Graine and Vayres valleys, Château de Rochechouart is a delight to visit, and has been a distinct venue for modern art for 30 years. Its collection of more than 300 works by international artists, has been built around three themes: history, landscape and imagination. A special collection based on the artist Raoul Hausmann is housed here. Around 700 items (drawings, photographs, collages, paintings and correspondence) are included in the collection. According to the museum
website:
Raoul Hausmann (1886-1971) was one of the founders of the Dadaist movement in Berlin, which, during the First World War, considerably redefined the form and aims of art. Apart from its evident iconoclasm, the Dadaist experiment challenged artistic separation and the frontier between art and life. Raoul Hausmann was a pioneer in collage, one of the inventors of photomontage and one of the initiators of sound poetry. In 1933, he was forced to flee Nazi Germany. After a long journey around Europe, he found refuge in the Limousin, where he remained until his death in 1971.
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| Musée départemental d’art contemporain in Rochechouart |
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| Musée départemental d’art contemporain in Rochechouart |
For me, even more than the contemporary art, the museum’s highlight is its amazing collection of Renaissance frescos that were rediscovered after being hidden on the castle walls for centuries. Frescos in the Hunting Room are bright, vivid scenes depicting a deer hunt and banquet. Next door, huge monochrome drawings cover the walls of the Hercules Gallery. According to the museum’s website, “episodes from the life of the famous mythological hero … constitute an extremely rare example of grisaille technique to have survived in France.”
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Frescos in the Hunting Room at Musée départemental
d’art contemporain in Rochechouart |
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Hercules Gallery in Musée départemental d’art contemporain
in Rochechouart |
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Frescos in the Hercules Gallery at the Musée départemental d’art contemporain
in Rochechouart |
After our 90-minute exploration inside the museum, we welcome a stroll on the château grounds. We then head to the village (just a couple of blocks away) to search (in vain) for a cup of coffee, but it’s a quiet Monday afternoon … too late for lunch, too early for dinner … so we head down the road to our next destination.
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| Grounds of Château de Rochechouart |
Rochechouart is the gateway to the 2,000-square-kilometer Parc Natural Régional Périgord-Limousin, so after you get your fill of modern art, there’s still time to visit to one of Mother Nature’s ateliers. More information can be found
here.
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| Weather vane atop Château de Rochechouart |
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