A Strong Alliance: Why Do Contemporary Artists Dedicate Their Works To Champagne To The House Of Ruinart

2023 Author: Henry Pass | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 12:31

For many years, one of the oldest Champagne Houses Ruinart has been collaborating with designers, painters and sculptors. The idea of inviting artists for joint projects was born over a century ago. In 1896, at the request of André Ruinard, the famous Czech Alphonse Mucha created an advertising poster, which marked the beginning of the history of Ruinart collaborations with contemporary artists. Today Ruinart works with 35 exhibitions and art fairs around the world and is the constant patron of contemporary Russian artists. In 2015, under the patronage of the House, the Moscow Biennale Art Foundation Prize was established.

In October this year, the work of Jaume Plensa was presented at the FIAC contemporary art fair, which traditionally takes place in the Paris Grand Palais. The works of this Spanish artist are known all over the world. The Plensa sculpture is dedicated to Thierry Ruinard, uncle of Nicolas Ruinard, founder of the House of Ruinart.

Thierry Ruinard was a member of one of the oldest monastic orders - the Benedictine order. The contribution of this order to the development of science and art is difficult to overestimate. Thierry Ruinard himself was a master of arts, but devoted his life to a complex theological discipline - hagiography (the study of the lives of saints). However, this did not prevent him from passionately loving literature, studying languages and exploring the history of his native Champagne and world civilizations. His scientific works, written in Greek, Latin and French, formed the basis of many scientific studies.

To pay tribute to the legacy of the learned monk, Ruinart turned to Jaume Plens, who, like no one else, knows how to transform words into works of art. His grandiose creations are silhouettes of human bodies. Some of them sit on their knees, others stand in full growth. All of them seem to be immersed in a meditative trance and are remotely similar to Rodin's thinkers, although, unlike the first ones, their gaze is directed to infinity. The artist worked on the sculpture for Ruinart for five months. Plence decomposed Thierry Ruinard's multilingual works into words, letters and numbers. The almost disembodied figure, leaving only a subtle hint of Thierry Ruinard's facial features, is composed of carved signs of several languages. The stainless steel letters let light pass through them and seem to go deep into the ground, like the roots of a vine.