Gérard Breuil's Ink Installation at Lyon Cathedral

Gérard Breuil has created an ink installation at Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Lyon, on view until the end of October. For over a decade, Breuil has abandoned oil painting in favor of ink made from water and smoke black, a deliberately poor medium. His work, which he calls "incrustation" rather than installation, fills the empty recesses between the pillars of the cathedral with vertical ink paintings reaching eight meters high. The imagery evokes plant forms—ivy, lianas, banyan trees, wisteria, water lilies—all rendered in black, allowing the light from stained glass windows to animate the space. Breuil's approach contrasts with Christo's external wrapping; instead, he works from within to reveal the architecture's youth. The installation draws on the ascetic tradition of the Cistercians while acknowledging historical abysses. Previous similar works were done at the Abbey of Tournus and the Franciscan cloister in Charlieu. The text references Paul Claudel and a passage from the Gospel of Mark, as used by Buñuel in "The Milky Way," comparing Breuil's effect to the miracle of giving sight to the blind.