George Duby — Jean-Pierre Raynaud

A document produced by Gilles Coudert

(77 min. / 1995)

Conference-debate between historian Georges Duby and artist Jean-Pierre Raynaud presented by Philippe Piguet.

This film was produced as part of the cycle of Grandes Conférences designed by Alain Julien-Laferrière and organized by the Centre de Création Contemporaine and the Université François-Rabelais in Tours on March 6, 1995.

What can there be in common between 12th century Cistercian architecture and the art of Jean-Pierre Raynaud? Georges Duby answers us by taking the example of the stained-glass windows by Raynaud made for the Cistercian abbey of Noirlac in 1975. The stained-glass windows of Noirlac offer the same relationship in structure and decoration as Cistercian architecture: a desire for maximum purification. If the form is similar, Cistercian thought and that of Raynaud diverge in the relationship that the work maintains with temporality: the former built for eternity while Raynaud’s art is limited to its own existence and therefore to his death. So he decided to destroy his major work in 1993: his house in which he locked himself for 23 years… this “to also make us aware that nothing will remain forever anyway, even the biggest museums in the world,” and that everything is vanity, but that at the same time if love is there I believe that nothing is forbidden to us. “The artist claims the freedom to be able to deal with the birth of things, the life of things and the death of things.

This conference, presented by Philippe Piguet, brings us together to meet two personalities passionate about man’s relationship to art, architecture, space and time.

The DVD interface offers direct viewing of the film through a series of themes discussed during the conference.

Film © 1995 Triac Documentaire