SOUCHAUD ART PROJECT presents
THE PALACE OF TANCRÈDE
22.06 au 9.07 > 2023
Chapelle de l'Île Barbe - Lyon 9
The Palace of Tancred, which is also that of Don Fabrizio, is the archetype of the Sicilian palace, an ancestral home that intimidates the passer-by and remains partly unknown to those who live there. It is the palace of all possibilities where the new Italy takes its breath from the ancient kingdom of the Two Sicilies, land of Gods and Giants.
A palace so high, so grand, full of mystery, heavy with the history of those who lived and reigned there for so long!
Unknown, the palace is no less sublime. It reveals itself to those who open the doors, climb the stairs, explore the attics with patience and respect.
The palace of Tancrède does not reveal, even to its owner, the number of its rooms nor the extent of its treasures and the latter does not keep count; this uncertainty, this ignorance of one's own home is conducive to discovery. We go up a staircase, we open a door, and there! it is surprise, astonishment, ecstasy in front of a painting covered in dust but which speaks to the visitor after having remained silent for decades.
Françoise opens the palace of Tancrède for us today, she only opens one door, but not the least: the portone which opens onto the piazzetta; it is up to us to climb, in silence, the stairs that go up to the upper floors, to the attic, to open the doors, to look under the golden dust and in the darkness for the beauties it conceals.
These are the mysterious faces painted by Martine Bligny and Svetlana Arefiev whose gaze pierces our soul; those that Didus, an alchemist crossing Time, fixes on his film; it is glass, so hard and so fragile, tamed by Jonathan Ausseresse whose fusion fascinates the mage
and his guests. The characters, modeled by Eric Chambon, emerge from the depths of the ages where the Heroes merge with the Gods and the monks with their Savior, lead us towards an unknown future and finally, in the depths of the princely trunks, the silk capes of Hélène Jospé that Tancred will wear before the papal altar and the embroideries of Sabine Feliciano, Penelope with fairy fingers who embroiders for eternity what the Fates wanted to destroy. Delicate Odonata caressed by a wave, ephemeral tenant of the palace fountain, born from the hand of Olivia Ferrand.
We must thank Françoise for opening to us the palatine door of her castle chapel, so welcoming and so secret. Let's go! Let's go in, we won't regret it!
Bernard Berthod
Doctor of Letters
Curator of the Museum of Religious Art of Fourvière Lyon
