Spent a very pleasant hour viewing street art in the grounds of a Loire Valley chateau. With the honourable exception of Banksy I’m not a great fan of urban art but was intrigued by this exhibition.
Just a 15 minute walk from our campsite in the heart of traditional, historic France, it seemed such an unlikely to place to find art, particularly this style of modern art.
Despite my misgivings the exhibition somehow worked, a successful juxtaposition of art, nature, heritage and the contemporary.
We had the exhibition completely to ourselves in the grounds – an unkempt hilly woodland area – of Candes-Saint-Martin’s Chateau de Moh.
The artworks were the expected mix of the good, bad, indifferent, the meaningful and the meaningless.
Displaying it in this unexpected environment gave each work something extra, a certain je ne sais quoi as they allegedly say round these parts.
The large scale of the exhibits, how the light and shade fell on the artworks, the freedom to explore the outdoor space however you wanted and the urban imagery in the rural setting all worked to make this a fun experience.
Some of the exhibits were made to fit specific spaces in the woodland, others were presented as huge paintings on planks of wood.
The exhibition was created on site over a year ago when more than 20 artists stayed in the Château de Môh and were given materials to work on scattered over the five hectares of the Château park.
A month later 23 artists had produced 40 works and between created a truly unique spectacle.
