Chateau La Coste

Posted by Alethea August 08, 2019

Chateau La Coste

Our day at Chateau La Coste was one of our favorite outings in France and definitely the favorite art experience. Chateau La Coste is a unique property in the countryside, a 45 minute drive from Aix. After meandering on narrow country roads, between trees, fields and small hamlets, you arrive at an understated entrance flanked by concrete panels. As you drive through the gates you see vineyards on either side of the lane and then in the distance a low slung angular concrete and glass building that is kissed by a large pool of water with a huge metal spider crouched in it. The effect for us was one of excitement and wonder. What is this place and what are we about to see!?

Chateau La Coste is a 500+ acre estate that has been owned since 2002 by Paddy McKillen, an Irish land and property baron and art enthusiast. After purchasing the estate McKillen invited artists to visit the land, choose a spot that "spoke to them", and create installations that exist scattered throughout the property. The estate is a working vineyard, houses a boutique high-end hotel, and an art centre. The visually stunning Art Centre was designed by the famous self-taught Japanese architect, Tadao Ando. This was the concrete and glass building that we saw as we drove up. After parking in the underground garage, which was in and of itself more elegantly designed than any garage we've ever been in, we walked up a flight of concrete stairs that rose up to a huge bank of windows that are next to the shimmering shallow pond of water that houses the spider. Walking through the Art Centre building we were excited to be in such a cool space that beautifully marries concrete and steel with glass, light and the green of the countryside.

Crouching Spider, by Louise Bourgeois.

Alexander Calder’s Small Crinkly mobile sits on the other side of the building.

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Mathematical Model 012 is seated in a pool of shallow water that borders the outside patio of the restaurant.

The restaurant housed in the Art Centre building showcases wines from the vineyard.

Exiting the building to start the art walk we are confronted with architecture as art.
The play of light, shadows and slices of the sky.

The art walk is a self guided walk through the wooded hills and alongside vineyards with many opportunities to pause and take in the view of the surrounding landscape or to gaze at an art installation. What was super cool was that none of the art was so precious that you could not touch it, in fact, much of it was designed to be interacted with. It was also neat to see how different artists chose to relate to the land.

Calilx Meus Inebrians - Guggi
This is a chalice made of bronze
"With this bowl, which appears to be filling up and even risks over flowing,
the artist symbolises the fact that in life we often have too much."
(from the handout for the walk)

Drop - Tom Shannon
"When pushed, the interior mechanism allows Drop to spin, tilt, rise/fall and glide horizontally and eventually return to equilibirum."

Frank Gehry’s Music Pavilion.

Meditation Bell - Paul Matisse

Tracey Emin’s Self Portrait, "Cat Inside a Barrel" is a long steel walkway that juts into the air among trees, offering a sweeping view of the land below.
At the end of the walkway is indeed a cat inside a barrel.

Liam Gillick’s "Multiplied Resistance Screened" was a kinetic experience.
Visually arresting from afar it was even more fun to move the different panels back and forth on smooth tracks, creating an endless number of combinations.

Richard Serra's "Aix" - industrial metal shapes embedded into the hillside.

Michael Stipes (yes, the singer) put a family of foxes in a grove.

A favorite was Andy Goldsworthy's installation "Oak Room".
It was built into this stone wall, and from the outside is unassuming.

As you descend a small flight of stairs you enter a large cave like structure that is lined by intertwined branches of wood.
The effect is stunning. It feels like you are nestled into an inverted nest.

The roof culminates in increasingly small pieces of wood, woven together to create a nest.

Some installations, even in middle of the woods, felt more architectural with an emphasis on the where the materials were from or how they were acquired, such as this tower of smooth brick, or the large cube of stacked limestone.
The tower, "Labyrinth" by Per Kirkeby, is composed of 24 000 handmade bricks and it sits "between sculpture and architecture."

Wall of Light Cubed - Sean Scully.
1000 tonnes of limestone extracted from a quarry in Portugal.

Psicopompos - Tunga
This was one of three archways that are part of this installation. The counterweight is different in each archway. The first is a single block of quartz from the Amazon, the second a class prism from the Czech Republic, and the third a net made of cast iron filled with pieces of quartz.

We loved being out in the fresh air and warm sun, wandering at our own pace and not worried about being quiet or still or "well behaved" enough for an art museum. It was really neat to see that we all have developed an appreciation for contemporary architecture and the kids all said how much they liked the buildings, the shapes and the materials. There were also temporary indoor exhibits that we enjoyed. One was of photographs taken on the property by Rieko Tamura while another featured Tadao Ando's drawings and sketches of the plans for some of his major works including the Art Centre Building. The physical container for the exhibit, the building with its sleek cement walls and cool cut out windows, was a favorite piece of art. The third exhibit displayed furniture designed by French designer, Paul Mathieu. That exhibit was in a cool bunker that was built into the hillside, hidden by a roof of grass. Art in different forms.

Our afternoon at Chateau La Coste was a favorite day for all of us. I think it was the combination of having no expectations and then being blown out of the water by what we saw and experienced: being outdoors in a natural setting and having the space to roam, run, climb and jump, but also being inspired by creativity, beauty, art and architecture and being challenged to look at art and architecture through a more generous lens. The beautiful Provencal landscape, with olive groves, vineyards, blue skies, fragrant herbs and castles in the distance didn't hurt either.

Donegal - Laurence Neufeld
Neufeld believes bridges are "as interesting as works of wart as they are as works of architecture".
Traditional methods of engineering were used, so only the force of gravity and resistance hold the work together.