Grenier à sel
In the framework of the EU creative process, Mrs. Carole Rey organized a surprise outing for which she would not tell us the destination.
The departure was made from CERI at 2:17 pm, we took the bus C3 towards the city center of Avignon, all this while ignoring the destination. After 15 minutes of walking, we arrived at the « Grenier à sel » of Avignon. This is one of the oldest buildings in Avignon, it was built in the 14th century, about the same time as the Popes’ Palace! Formerly a salt store, it was sold after the revolution as a national property to private individuals.
During our visit, the guide explained the history of this place. The granary has been renovated and is now used as an exhibition center.
The theme of the current exhibition is abstract art.
In the first room that we visited we were able to watch a documentary about the making of a film about Pablo Picasso, this video aims to try to explain how this painter thinks and how he creates works. Also, we saw a video of an artist painting on hot stone with water. His drawing was quickly erased due to the heat, so the artist had to start his work over and over again.
In the next room, we could see works that used artificial intelligence to design them (partially or totally), here an example of work made with the cooperation of two artists and an artificial intelligence (each participant has a predefined color).
Finally, in the third room, we could admire a work combining video-projection and drawing. The superposition of these 2 techniques was superb.
Moreover, this room also had works made of origami that need to be filmed with a specific application to see them animated. The sequence of these animations told a story of a couple.
At the very end of our visit, we had the opportunity to create an abstract painting as a group that contained randomly generated patterns by the computer in green color. The pink and orange colors were made by us. The whole group participated in this beautiful piece of art.
