Xavier de Richemont
Painter, scenography designer

The work on light and sound that I had the opportunity of implementing these last three years in Chartres is made to give a contemporary, attractive and specific identity to the city. The project is vast and fascinating. My work, based on different light systems, is enhanced by this historical city and the exceptional opportunity given to an artist to produce, on the scale of the city, a complete, coherent and original work of art based on different elements...

This work was produced with different aspects of composition and based on research into the history and the heritage of Chartres. It attempts to create a different relationship to the city by suggesting a new way of seeing it and to reorganise its space by emphasizing the vital energy of the city : it was a challenge to set modern works in ancient locations, to use an artist's work to make people aware of the beauty and the quality of our environment, to link the notion of passage with that of exchange in Chartres.

For the third edition of "Festival of Light", I was able to complete the compositions that were put up for the summer by a work I produced on the Saint Pierre church. It was transformed into a reliquary shrine of Saint Fulbert ; the street with the same name was filled with colossal statues ; the Place Billard came alive with heraldry and the sound of horse hoofs on the cobblestone of Thibault le Tricheur's soldiers; for two nights, the place des Halles is turned into a visual, musical, monumental and contemporary grain market.

I would like to thank the City of Chartres for its active and efficient involvement in this major project.