Damien Hirst takes over Château La Coste
Damien Hirst’s ‘The Light That Shines’ at Château La Coste includes new and existing work, and takes over the entire 500-acre estate in Provence
It is clear when pulling into the glorious, 500-acre winery and cultural destination Château La Coste that there is something different afoot. While art aficionados will know Louise Bourgeois’ spider is crouching in the water, ready to spring, as Yoko Ono’s wishes sway on the branches of a tree and Prune Nourry’s pregnant woman reclines into the ground, they may not expect to be greeted by Damien Hirst’s vast anatomical sculpture of a man. Elsewhere, the resigned face of Charity confronts the visitor as they begin their tour around the estate, while a centaur from Treasures points the way.
Damien Hirst’s Château La Coste takeover
These outdoor sculptures dotted around the grounds are only the beginning of Hirst’s immersive, full takeover of Château La Coste. The first artist to completely take over both the grounds and the five exhibition pavilions, Hirst is using the opportunity to showcase more than 90 sculptures and paintings, including work previously unseen, as part of major exhibition, ‘The Light That Shines’, presented by HENI.
A long friendship between Hirst and Château La Coste founder, Paddy McKillen, means this project has been on the cards for years, the obvious culmination of McKillen’s long-standing philosophy to only work with architects and artists he personally admires.
Seeing Hirst’s work in the context of its Provençal backdrop feels oddly natural. His career-long preoccupations with the tensions between art and science, and life and death, take on a sharp focus when viewed against the natural surrounding beauty, the sculptures at the mercy of the seasons. His work is carefully placed, with great consideration given to the character of each pavilion. Particularly special is viewing the never-before-seen The Empress Paintings in the remarkable Richard Rogers Gallery. Vivid orange, the gallery floats over the trees, a masterpiece of engineering that seemingly requires no support. It’s a magical foil for Hirst’s red and black butterflies, also hovering above us, cast into hypnotic kaleidoscopes in a surreal immersion.
Underground, the sharks float, swimming through the underwater light of the Renzo Piano Pavilion. It’s a serene, light-filled space for key pieces from the Natural History series, which fluctuate as the light does, peculiarly ethereal. The Bastide Gallery holds the brightly coloured The Secret Gardens Paintings, while new work, Cosmos Paintings, alongside sculptures from the Meteorites and Satellites series, are given the clean white canvas of Jean-Michel Wilmotte’s Old Wine Storehouse, boosted by the intimacy of its proportions. Hirst, who was inspired by the long-exposure images from Hubble Space Telescope for the new Cosmos Paintings series, began by painting the canvases black and fixing them to the floor, to then go over them with paint, which makes for a rough and textured viscerality.
In the Oscar Niemeyer Auditorium sits a generous amount of pieces from 2017’s ‘Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable’, first shown at Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi in Venice. The winding proportions of the pavilion respect the narrative of the work, a thread that runs throughout.
‘Damien Hirst: The Light That Shines’ , presented by HENI, is on from 2 March – 23 June 2024 at Château la Coste
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Hannah Silver is the Art, Culture, Watches & Jewellery Editor of Wallpaper*. Since joining in 2019, she has overseen offbeat design trends and in-depth profiles, and written extensively across the worlds of culture and luxury. She enjoys meeting artists and designers, viewing exhibitions and conducting interviews on her frequent travels.
-
Discothèque perfumes evoke the scent of Tokyo in the year 2000
As Discothèque gets ready to launch its first perfume collection, Mary Cleary catches up with the brand’s founders
By Mary Cleary Published
-
This unassuming London house is a radical rethinking of the suburban home
Station Lodge by architect Andrei Saltykov in South West London offers a radical subversion to regional residential architecture
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Explore 100 years of Svenskt Tenn and the interiors Estrid Ericson has crafted
‘A Philosophy of Home’ explores 100 years of Svenskt Tenn and the daring vision for interiors its founder Estrid Ericson developed
By Diana Budds Published
-
‘Who has not dreamed of seeing what the eye cannot grasp?’: Rencontres d’Arles comes to the south of France
Les Rencontres d’Arles 2024 presents over 40 exhibitions and nearly 200 artists, and includes the latest iteration of the BMW Art Makers programme
By Sophie Gladstone Published
-
Van Gogh Foundation celebrates ten years with a shape-shifting drone display and The Starry Night
The Van Gogh Foundation presents ‘Van Gogh and the Stars’, anchored by La Nuit Etoilée, which explores representations of the night sky, and the 19th-century fascination with the cosmos
By Amy Serafin Published
-
Marisa Merz’s unseen works at LaM, Lille, have a uniquely feminine spirit
Marisa Merz’s retrospective at LaM, Lille, is a rare showcase of her work, pursuing life’s most fragile, transient details
By Finn Blythe Published
-
Step into Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron's dreamy photographs in London
'Portraits to Dream In' is currently on show at London's National Portrait Gallery
By Katie Tobin Published
-
Tia-Thuy Nguyen encases Chateau La Coste oak tree in tonne of stainless steel strips
Tia-Thuy Nguyen’s ‘Flower of Life’ lives in the grounds of sculpture park and organic winery Château La Coste in France
By Harriet Quick Published
-
The Weight of Things: Damien Hirst curates his retrospective in Munich
The Weight of Things, at The Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art, Munich (MUCA), was curated by Hirst himself and comprises work spanning four decades
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
Buckhorn Sculpture Park: inside the art paradise dreamt up by collectors Sherry and Joel Mallin
As legendary art collectors Sherry and Joel Mallin prepare to sell their upstate New York home – and the star-studded collection occupying Buckhorn, its onsite sculpture park – we go behind the scenes of this art treasure trove, and the extraordinary life, work and spirit of the Mallins
By MZ Adnan Published
-
Paris art exhibitions: a guide to exhibitions this weekend
As Emily in Paris fever puts the city of love at the centre of the cultural map, stay-up-to-date with our guide to the best Paris art exhibitions
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published