TONNERRE ET CAVALCADE

Tonnerre et Cavalcade

A 12 channel sound installation

Grandeur Nature Exhibition

Château de Fontainebleau

May-September 2023

Extract from Liberation article published 12th August 2023:

"For anyone who still doubts the capacity of contemporary art to blend into the decor, Sébastien Jouan's installation finally dispels any ambiguity. The demonstration is all the more irrefutable since with Tonnerre et Cavalcade, there is absolutely nothing to see. Just to hear: in this case, the sound of a horde of horses which, frightened by the roar of a storm, snort before setting off at a gallop. Timeless soundtrack from a scene which does not exist, the recording, lasting fifteen minutes, is however not fortuitous since it is embedded in an alley which goes from the military riding school to the stump of a tree struck by lightning during a memorable storm in June 2022."

see full article : L’art contemporain cultive son jardin à Fontainebleau – Libération (liberation.fr)

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The first artistic parcours dedicated to contemporary sculpture in the English garden of the Château de Fontainebleau, GRANDEUR NATURE was organized by the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, in close collaboration with the teams of Fontainebleau. At the heart of this vegetal decor, it is a question of fantastic or little strange animals, works that hide and madnesses that are exposed, installations that are as ephemeral as they are fanciful, but also inspired by nature and the environment.

Inspired by the garden settings and the proximity of both the Fontainebleau Horse Riding Centre and the presence of a thunder struck tree, Sébastien Jouan was invited as a sound artist to compose the soundscape of Tonnerre and Cavalcade, a 15 minute multichannel composition that augments the natural sound field and is linked to the physical surroundings (such as a lightning-struck tree). It is the only sound installation out of the many pieces being hosted.

GRANDEUR NATURE is a dialogue with the landscape, especially with the exceptional trees that have made up the English garden since the 19th century. The eighteen artists presented were chosen for the singular and personal link they have with nature and which leads them to seek the perfect integration of their works in this theater of greenery, in complete complicity with the gardeners of the place. The park becomes an open-air gallery where the visitor-walker is invited on an astonishing art hunt. For this inaugural edition, the Château de Fontainebleau has chosen to stage a playful journey, a bit surreal, as a nod to Belgium, guest country of the twelfth Art History Festival on June 2, 3 and 4 at the castle. During a poetic stroll, we can come across some forty works of art, all set to make us dream: deities of the forest, duo of topiary rhinos, dancing stones, flying chair, thunder and horses, giant dwarf or happy monsters, as well as an unusual fries stand on the Carp pond…

Artists: Gilles Barbier, Julien Berthier, Christophe Charbonnel, Carole Chebron, Céline Cléron, Martine Feipel & Jean Béchameil, Jean-François Fourtou, Elsa Guillaume, Sébastien Jouan, Katarzyna Kot, Gérard Kuijpers, François-Xavier Lalanne, Laurent Le Deunff, Yoshikazu Goulven Le Maître, Présence Panchounette, Françoise Pétrovitch, Philippe Ramette, Philémon Vanorle – Volatile Society

General curators: Christine Germain-Donnat, head of the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, and Jean-Marc Dimanche, Independent Artistic Advisor

Associate Curators for the Château de Fontainebleau: Thierry Lerche, Head of the Gardens Department; Anaïs Dorey, Chief Curator in charge of Sculptures; David Millerou, Head of the Educational Department

Grandeur Nature Fontainebleau Palace English Gardens, 18 May-17 September 2023

Special Thanks to Peter Stitt of SSA Pluggins for the hard work on site and the spatialisation of sounds, IRCAM for the sound system, Christine Germain Donnat and Jean-Marc Dimanche the curators and my son Jacques for all his hard work on pulling hundred of meters of cables!