An exhibition? Better to talk about an installation. Because we call an artistic installation an exhibition where it is the place that inspires and gives meaning to the works.
The ephemeral hermit will be such a facility. An intervention that will be built little by little, that will constantly grow without making any noise. Like a tree, like the spirit of hermits who have lived centuries in this unusual place. Each month the works will be more numerous, more developed, more detailed. The ephemeral hermit is not an invasive intervention. It will be a precise and minimalist artistic intervention that will present itself in a gentle way. The visitor will discover features, lines, links. As a real construction site the works will often conceal ladders, scaffolding and other characteristic elements for builders. But all the elements will be extremely miniaturized. The ephemeral hermit will be surreal and realistic at the same time. Very realistic: I’m going to work there. Even in the middle of winter. And when I get there, the door will be open to everyone. I’ll almost feel like a hermit...
The project aims to deepen, illustrate and enlarge the spirit, the genius loci of this fascinating place. A place that has miraculously preserved its solitary soul, a soul that moves away from the intense life that has been taking place for centuries at its foot in the Loire Valley. But the hermitage of Saint John does not shift so far that there is no longer a link, a mixture, a certain level of synthesis, between the two worlds. Bonds that evolved, that changed with time, bonds that interrupted and that were created again, that moved away and came closer together. Long-term, or short-term, but always ephemeral. The ephemeral hermit will be an artistic installation that will oscillate between the disciplines of architecture, building archaeology, plastic arts and drawing. As in most of my works and projects...
Paul Tieman