Mougins Monumental: Life-Size Nature

Inauguration

Mougins Monumental hosts for its second edition some twenty monumental works of contemporary artists exhibited in open-air throughout the medieval village.

Mougins Monumental is the monumental outdoor exhibition the visitor and the art lover can enjoy from March 5 to May 29, 2016 durong strolls through this beautiful medieval village in the shape of a snail. These masterful works scattered across gardens, small squares and carefully flowered picturesque streets lined with beautiful old houses, are sure to catch the eye.
With their colors, materials and imposing and original shapes, the sculptures will spark exchanges and comments for a few months. A new way to admire the art, not in an enclosed space, but in an infinite space where heaven and earth combine into a vast playground. The exhibition was inaugurated by mayor of Mougins Richard Galy in presence of the artists.

Ben

Animals in the wild at each corner

By penetrating the heart of the village, with its shady fragrant alleys, where Picasso loved to walk and the illustrious king of gastronomy Roger Vergé used to come and breathe the fragrant scent of pine, olive and cypress to transform them into recipes with incomparable flavors, the visitors will discover at leisure throughout their artistic wandering some animals, domestic or wild, some not, men of stone, establishing themselves as true stewards of this eclectic, multi materials and multi styles wildlife. An exhibition in which Nature quietly reclaims its rights, as much in materials as in places.

Serge Van De Put

A Nature life-size walk

One will notice, among the animal works, sometimes hanging, sometimes resting on the ground, an ode to Amour Fou (Folon) and the Freedom of Béatrice Domenico, which poetry-filled, seem to fly away and join the sleek and slender birds by Folon, a horse, a cow, dressed with Ben‘s provocative”good words”, a couple of sheeps by Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne grazing the lawn of the Denis Fetisson‘s restaurant, La Place de Mougins, and are facing the hungry wolves by Davide Rivalta, Serge Van de Put‘s facetious baby gorilla and majestic horse… And amidst all these, a powerful bull of iron and steel by Domenico and Max Carier‘s stone warriors are watching over the entrance of the village.

Folon

Born in Brussels in 1934, Folon first studied architecture. In 1955, he moved to the outskirts of Paris to devote himself to drawing. In 1960, he sent his first drawings to different New York magazines that publish them without even meeting him. Become a known and recognized artist, illustrator, painter, engraver, sculptor, his art flourishes in diversity and the museums around the world organize exhibitions of his works. In 2000, he inaugurated in La Hulpe, on this symbolic place of his childhood, the Folon Foundation which presents the essence of his work.

Folon

Ben

We don’t need to present Ben anymore, an artist whose works are include in major private and public collections worldwide, like the MOMA in New York, the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art from Nice. His production is both a reflection on art in what is fundamental while integrating our daily lives in what is most particular. Ben manages to make his life an art. In the late 50s, he joined the School of Nice with César, Arman, Raysse… Seduced by the New Realism, he supports young artists by founding Figuration Libre (Combas, Hervé Di Rosa …). He lives and works since 1975 in Nice.

Max Cartier

Max Cartier began his professional life as an actor before discovering the sculpture in the 60s. In the hinterland of Nice, he extracted stones, shapes them slightly to keep their gross side and assembles them. In their nets of twisted irons, his creatures are reminiscent of millennia warriors. Max Cartier chose to express emotions using powerful, rough and eternal, materials from the depths of the earth so that the light turns them into monumental creatures of strength and eternity.

Max Cartier

Béatrice De Domenico

After studying architecture, she joined the School at Villa Arson where she started painting and drawing. The call of the matter quickly leads the artist to sculpture. From 1998 to 2004, the artist focuses on monumental and regularly presents her sculptures with exacerbated volumes in many exhibitions in the region. Since 1996, Béatrice De Domenico uses wire and fabric to represent the human in monumental proportions. Shared between drawing and sculpture, she draws in the air some lines she materializes using wire and resin.

Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne

In 1949, François-Xavier Lalanne studied drawing, sculpture and painting in Paris, notably alongside René Magritte and Salvador Dali. In 1952, he held in Paris his first personal exhibition of painting. His wife Claude and him are an artist duo known for making nature and animals their creative support. From their works are born amazement, amusement, a poetry borrowed from surrealism, guided by the game of shapes and materials. The animals are also the focus of the engraved work of Francis Xavier.

Richard Galy – Claude et François-Xavier Lalanne

Davide Rivalta

The Italian-born artist make animals out of fiberglass, aluminum or bronze. The clay he uses to perform his works increases the hyper realism of the animal whose color is always natural. Since 2005, his works are exhibited in Ravenna, but also in Bangkok and Japan, often installed in the most unexpected places on the planet.

Serge Van De Put

The artist discovers through his travels the ingenuity of Africans to recycle all the material at their fingertips. Seduced by the idea of turning an everyday object at end of life into a support for Art, Serge tackles more substantial works. Under the guise of a playful work, he manifests an assembly of great skill where nothing is left to chance. Each piece is selected for its texture, causing the work to express a desired movement and breathing a soul into his creations. Quickly noticed by the art world, the artist makes exhibitions across Europe and his reputation allows him to create more impressive works. In 2009, he made a life-size elephant based on used tires exhibited at the Venice Biennale.

Come and enjoy a Monumental experience by discovering the works of these outstanding artists at the village from March 5, 2016. A detailed plan will allow visitors to make the complete course to discover the different artists – available at Mougins Office Tourism, Place des Patriotes, and at the Classical Art Museum of Mougins (MACM).

Mougins Monumental
Mougins Village
March 5 to May 29, 2016
Tourist Office: 33 (0) 4 92 92 50 08

MACM

The MACM (Museum of Classical Art in Mougins) offers until April 30, 2016 the exhibition Animal: statuettes and sculptures of ancient animals and their place in antiquity. Open daily from 10h to 18h.

www.mougins.fr