Pascal Rivet's 'Procession' of Raw Wood Tractors at Château-Gontier

At Le Carré/Chapelle du Genêteil in Château-Gontier, Pascal Rivet's exhibition 'Procession' (January 9 – March 7, 2010) presented three tractors carved from raw volige wood, arranged in a line down the nave. Unlike his earlier life-size replica of a Claas Dominator combine harvester (850 x 450 x 380 cm) shown at the Chartreuse de Villeneuve lez Avignon during the 2008 Dégelée Rabelais festival—which was painted for photorealistic effect—these tractors are left unpainted, marking a conceptual shift. Backlit by floor projectors, the sculptures emerge from darkness with a theatrical atmosphere. The artist, known for empathetic depictions of work vehicles (tractors, butcher trucks, Brink's vans, pizza delivery mopeds), now interrogates his materials: the raw wood leans toward drawing rather than photography. A small pyrography on plywood and cross-stitch embroideries of tractor crashes (sourced from the Internet) accompany the installation. Jean-Marc Huitorel notes that while the painted sculptures evoked photographic images, the unpainted ones resemble three-dimensional pyrography. Rivet's work, once focused on labor, now questions its own investigative tools and the persistence of realism when its most effective effects are abandoned. The exhibition was part of a broader series; Rivet was scheduled to show the tractors at Domaine de Chamarande from October 24, 2010.