The order of six bells, whose decoration is entrusted to visual artists and designers, intersects with all three dimensions of the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud project: the voice, heritage and visual arts. 

At Fontevraud, Emmanuel Morin almost blends into his surroundings. He has been walking the paths and passageways of the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud for nearly 20 years now. Initially a freelance visual artist and set designer, then in charge of the Fontevraud ‘visual arts’ programme for 12 years, he has been the Artistic and Cultural Director of the oldest venue in France to be a certified ‘Centre culturel de rencontre’ (Cultural Exchange Centre) since 2019. 

Abbaye royale de Fontevraud
The Royal Abbey of Fontevraud. Photo © Sébastien Gaudard

Nestled away in this valley, a stone’s throw away from Saumur, are some exceptionally restored buildings that date back to the 12th century (abbey church, kitchens, Saint-Benoît chapel, priory, etc.) all the way through to the 19th century and bear witness to its penal past, with its chapter house and convent buildings erected in the 16th century. The site encapsulates the history of religious architecture in western France. 

For the past two years the Royal Abbey, founded by Robert Arbrissel, has also housed the Museum of Modern Art – Martine and Léon Cligman’s national collections, formed from a donation by a collector couple of almost 900 works and objects of all origins. A journey into the world of Henri de Toulouse‐Lautrec, Edgar Degas, Juan Gris, Chaïm Soutine and even Germaine Richier. 

Each bell is decorated by a visual artist who, over the course of their career, has forged a link with the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud. Each one leaves a lasting legacy of their creative energy. Four of the six bells have already been installed, with a new one completed every year. Here,the ‘Gabrielle’ bell created by artist, illustrator and designer Paul Cox (2023). The decoration of this bell, dedicated to former Abbess and sister of Madame de Montespan Marie-Madeleine Gabrielle de Rochechouart, evokes the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud, its natural setting and daily religious and secular life. Photo © Tomasz Namerla

Fontevraud’s Artistic Director cherishes this site, and the project that he is currently developing there is a response to this vast wealth of treasure. “We work with two mediums at Fontevraud: the voice and visual arts,” he explains. “At the centre of all this is heritage, with which these two artistic mediums come to life.” For the voice, this is done through sacred music concerts as well as an Easter and festival period centred around the Passion under the artistic direction of René Martin, the creator of La Folle Journée in Nantes; while for visual arts, this consists of artistic residences that all form part of a coherent programme. “Heritage is at the beating heart of the Abbey and its project, and that’s why visitors come here,” Emmanual Morin stresses. “And so the artistic and cultural project that I’m in charge of aims to connect contemporary creators with this heritage.” The annual winter art trail known as ‘Christmas at Fontevraud’ is part of this offering. Every area within the Royal Abbey – and there are many – is assigned an artistic form (coffee table book, exhibition or installation) and an artist. Meanwhile, the summer art trail combines permanent installations (François Morellet, Pierre Alexandre Remy, the Chapuisat brothers, etc.) with temporary ones, consisting of works by the annual artists in residence and spread throughout the Abbey’s various areas.

The soul of an abbey

The bells have now been back at Fontevraud for four years. At the beginning of this story there was a 2019 exhibition that showcased the work of bell makers. Today these creators and founders are still producing bells in conditions that remain largely unchanged from hundreds of years ago. “The aim of the project wasn’t to continue the tradition, nor even to develop its potential. We simply wanted to create an exhibition, ephemeral by nature. But we soon came to the realisation that this work on bell art could be the perfect way to consolidate the Abbey’s artistic and cultural project: at the intersection of heritage, voice and visual art.” A bell, he explains, “is first and foremost a voice, a sound and the soul of an abbey.” And it is from this solid foundation, the implementation – in a single cross-cutting action – of all intersections of this site’s artistic project, that the project is unfolding.

Since 2019, thanks to the expertise of the Fonderie Cornille-Havard – heirs to a long line of bell founders who have lived in Villedieu-les-Poêles in Normandy since the Middle Ages – every year a new bell has been entrusted to a visual artist who designs the decoration. The bell is then created, moulded and cast before being installed in the Abbey gardens. If, due to the very fragile structure of medieval buildings, it has proven impossible to reinstate the bells in the abbey church bell tower, then the team has chosen to install them near the buildings so that they can be appreciated by the public.

Cloche Makiko Furuichi Abbaye royale de Fontevraud
The ‘Pétronille’ bell was created by artist Makiko Furuichi (2022) in tribute to the first Abbess of Fontevraud (1115–1149). Makiko Furuich decided to coil a dragon around this bell. This is a reference to the snake that can be found on the nun’s staff at the Musée des Beaux-arts in Angers, as well as in the Book of Numbers from the Old Testament. Photo © Tomasz Namerla

A ‘bell room’

“When we made the decision to share the bells with the public by putting them outdoors, I wanted to make sure that they weren’t just laid there, looking a bit lost on the lawns,” says Emmanuel Morin. “I thought about the La Chambre des cloches (‘bell room’) exhibition, a specially designed space that Nantes-based designers Barreau and Charbonnet had created as part of their first exhibition back in 2019. It was like a jewellery box. That gave me an idea, and so I asked them to create a container that would allow us not only to showcase each bell, but to also give the presentation meaning generally.” For each bell, the holder was built on-site and designed by Barreau and Charbonnet, evoking the bells’ traditional sound barriers and based on the acoustic principles of spherical sound wave spreading produced by a ringing bell. The cylinders resonate in their geometry with that of the metre, the unit of measurement in music. Each one is different, adapting to the note produced by each bell: long and deep for a low note, shorter and high for a higher pitch. Gathered in a ‘round’, today the four finished bells are all facing the Abbey, as if being ‘called’ by the abbey church bell. 

Exhibition

To tell the unique story of its bell art project, the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud is presenting the exhibition ‘À toute volée – Six nouvelles cloches pour Fontevraud’ until 19th September 2023. Installed in the Abbey dormitory, it is designed to be an immersion both in bell heritage and in contemporary bell creation. All aspects of this work, ranging from historical and visual to technical and musical, are covered here. “Visitors will have the opportunity to discover never-before-seen objects and videos,” explains Emmanuel Morin, “as well as all the information they need to understand the steps in the creation process of an ‘airain’, this other term that founders use to denote a bell.” The exhibition has been created with support from the Maine-et-Loire Departmental Heritage Conservation. 

Exposition À toute volée Abbaye royale de Fontevraud
‘À toute volée – Six nouvelles cloches pour Fontevraud’ exhibition. Photo © Tomasz Namerla
Abbaye royale de Fontevraud
49590 Fontevraud-l’Abbaye
www.fontevraud.fr
IG : @fontevraud

Text : Cyrille Jouanno
Cover photo : The ‘Gabrielle’ bell created by artist Paul Cox © Tomasz Namerla