Philippe Méaille, who lives in Anjou, worked with Christian Gillet, the president of the department of Maine-et-Loire, to study the possibility of creating a museum of contemporary art in Anjou, and to install his collection in the château de Montsoreau, a departmental property.[9] On 19 June 2015, Christian Gillet offered Méaille a 25 year lease.[10][11]
Restoration works
During the redevelopment of a former storage room, the masons discovered a chimney dating from about 1450. This chimney is currently being studied in collaboration with the bâtiments de France to be restored.
A library on the history of art, contemporary creation and applied arts opened in August 2016. The château de Montsoreau-Museum of contemporary art port reopened at the end of May 2017 after several months of work, to allow its visitors to arrive by boat.[12]
Architecture
Since more than a thousand years, the castle of Montsoreau is the gate of Anjou; it is the only Château de la Loire that is a museum of contemporary art. Historically built by one of the ambassadors of Charles VII King of France, Jean II of Chambes[13] is the first of Kingdom's Lords, with Jacques Cœur to install the Italian Renaissance in France. He built the Château de Montsoreau between 1443 and 1453,[14] directly by the side of the Loire, like Venetian palaces built during the same period.[15]
Collection
The Philippe Méaille collection, which constitutes the collection of the museum,[16] is installed on the first two floors of the museum.[17] It is composed exclusively of works by the artists group Art & Language.[18] Founded in 1968, Art & Language – which takes its name from the eponymous newspaper Art-Language[19] – is made up of British, American and Australian artists.[20] The collective is still active and currently represented by Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden.[19]
In 2017, the gardens of the castle were transformed into wild gardens.[37] On more than one hectare, the garden represents freedom and biodiversity. Miriam Rothschild (1908–2005), a scientific researcher, created the "natural" gardens. The wild garden favors native plants and preserves the surrounding fauna to propose a balance between fauna and flora.[38][39]
Publications
2016: Rod Mengham, Un tour chez Agnès Thurnauer.
2016: Art & Language, Entretien avec Victorine Meurend.
2017: Art & Language, Affiche: Almost a Home for Homeless Stuff.
2017: Fabien Vallos, Philippe Méaille, Antonia Birnbaum, Fabrice Hergott, Chloé Maillet, Louise Hervé, Antoine Dufeu, A Constructed World, Protest 1517-2017. ISBN978-2-9557917-0-7
2018: Art & Language, Matthew Jesse Jackson, Art & Language Reality (Dark) Fragments (Light).ISBN978-2-9557917-2-1