Saint-Cirq Lapopie Biennale

Artists: Cédric Fargues, Aidan Koch, Richard Phillips, Bunny Rogers, Mindy Rose Schwartz, Anna Solal

Exhibition title: Saint-Cirq Lapopie Biennale

Curated by: Pierre-Alexandre Mateos and Charles Teyssou

Venue: Saint-Cirq Lapopie, France

Date: July 23 – 30, 2016

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists

Saint-Cirq Lapopie is a potemkine village nestled on a hill in the stony region of Lot in south of France. Dating from the medieval age, its popularity has reached a paramount level with the help of international lifestyle magazines that praised its immaculateness. From 25 inhabitants during the winter, the city swallows 400 000 tourists during the summer.

Saint-Cirq Lapopie has first been known for being the summer destination of André Breton. He came there in June 1950 while he accompanied Garry Davis in the nearby town of Cahors for the Citizen of the world’s conference, a movement that wanted to abolish all national boundaries. On that occasion they inaugurated the first road of the world also named Road for the Peace between Cahors and Saint-Cirq Lapopie. Mesmerized by the beauty of the village, Breton decided to buy a second home and invited his friends to come over during holidays. Man Ray, Max Ernst, Dorothea Thanning and Meret Oppenheim were among the people who spent time there. While in Saint Cirq Lapopie he shared his time between his collection of regional folkloric and superstitious objects, the only bar of the town in which he wrote poetry with his domesticated parrot, and the river along which he was used to pick up some agates.

Saint-Cirq Lapopie provides an extreme sense of authenticity. In a pavlovian reflex, visitors when stepping into the sinuous path that leads to the town already feel the warmness of the stone, smell the geranium perfume diffused by the myriad of gardens, and hear the music of it’s old creaky door. When passing the entrance gate, the idyllic pastoral vision sold beforehand by the very rich iconography is ordered again with a chilling precision. Saint-Cirq Lapopie inertia is proportionate to its attractiveness. Too unreal to live in, too authentic to erase.