Expérience Pommery #15: Introspection Opens in Reims After Lockdown

The Domaine Pommery in Reims has opened 'Expérience Pommery #15: Introspection', a retrospective of significant works from the Vranken Pommery Monopole collection, delayed by the COVID-19 lockdown. Originally scheduled for April 2, 2020, the exhibition now runs until December 31, 2020, in the Gallo-Roman chalk cellars (crayères) of the estate. Nathalie Vranken, owner of Pommery, noted in March that 'freedom has disappeared' from their world. The cellars, carved in the 19th century by Louise Pommery, served as a hospital during WWI and were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015. The exhibition features works by Pablo Valbuena, Daniel Buren, Dominique Blais, Enrique Marty, Lisa Oppenheim, Hicham Berrada, Choi Jeong Hwa, Stéphane Thidet, Barthélémy Toguo, Stephen Wilks, Delphine Reist, and Philippe Baudelocque. Valbuena's 'Kinematope' (2016) creates parallel architectures with light along a 116-step staircase. Buren's chalk-carved bands and Blais's red discs emit subtle sounds. Marty's 'Sunbath' shows his father covering himself with sand. Oppenheim's solarized skies reference WWII bombings. Berrada's chemical reactions generate poetic landscapes. Thidet's 'Refuge' makes rain fall inside a cabin. Toguo's migrant boat on a sea of champagne bottles is critiqued as questionable. Wilks's 'Donkey Roundabout' features skeleton-borne donkeys turning counterclockwise. Reist's rubber boots stomp in military formation. Baudelocque carved small planets into the chalk walls.