2026, Chapel of the Château des Rohan, Pontivy, Morbihan, FRANCE L’art dans les chapelles, 2026, 35°
Exploring the intertwined ideas of falling, uplift and levitation, the installation unfolds throughout the chapel. At its centre hangs a translucent sculptural work; beyond it, a second intervention flows across the surface of the window, while two glass sculptures placed on the altar evoke the emergence of new substances.
The central work, The Fall, draws on the visual language of the Baroque, evoking the image of a body caught in its descent, like the figures that plunge across painted ceilings. It inhabits the space between the fall of an object and the fall of the human body. The motif also recalls Yves Klein’s Leap into the Void, Marcel Duchamp, Ai Weiwei’s explorations of falling objects and Chris Burden’s performances. At the same time, the work is nourished by the chromatic research of Fra Angelico and Piero della Francesca and by the way they construct pictorial space, above all through their extraordinary sense of depth. These quiet references are woven into my site-specific installations, bringing the visible into its fullest intensity.
Suspended overhead, The Fall cascades vertically in translucent waves, or draperies, of mauve and golden yellow. It seems to defy gravity, radiating a luminous fullness that runs counter to the very sensation of falling, as though movement itself had been arrested. Yet the sculpture is not only visual: it is also acoustic. As air passes through the installation, it produces faint snaping sounds, enveloping the visitor in an immersive environment that gently dissolves familiar spatial reference points. The light of the chapel animates the material, releasing shimmering reflections, intangible flashes and colours that are at once saturated and transparent. The gaze is absorbed; the body follows. Hovering before the altarpiece, the installation partially conceals it while remaining sufficiently translucent for the two to coexist in the same visual field. In this sense, it might equally bear the title Ante Tabula—”before the panel”.
Resting on the altar are two enamelled glass sculptures from the Substance series (2022). Echoing the pharmaceutical form of capsules, their elongated, lustrous shapes generate a visual tension from one end to the other, while their apparent two-tone colouring emphasises their dual structure. If colour delights the eye, Plato’s pharmakon reminds us that it may also be remedy, drug or poison—an ambivalent force whose power to heal can never be separated from its power to transform.
Across the window, tears of blood descend in crimson ribbons that seem to flow without end, casting deep scarlet shadows at dusk.
Nathalie Junod ponsard
Translation : Martyn Back
¬ The Fall / La Chute, 2026. Gel filter, Perspex. Variable dimensions
¬ Tears of Blood / Les Larmes de sang, 2026, Gel filter. Variable dimensions
¬ Substance, 2022. Glass sculpture, 10 x 48 cm – Gallery Baudoin Lebon
Curator : Eric Suchère
Photos 2, 3 & 7 : Gwendal le Flem