Festival AR(t]CHIPEL : "NOIR MATTERS" @ Château de Montgoger – Musée de Saint Épain: Jess Atieno, Ouattara Watts

A Pivotal Exhibition of the AR(t]CHIPEL Festival

For its third edition, the AR(t]CHIPEL Festival continues its exploration of the plurality of aesthetics and sensibilities that shape the contemporary art landscape in the Centre-Val de Loire region. This is achieved both by highlighting artists from diverse backgrounds who live there, as well as private collections—perfectly illustrated by the exhibition NOIR MATTERS.

Through this polymorphic and polyphonic exhibition, colors, materials, and sounds intertwine to create a space where memories confront and echo one another. The viewer is no longer a mere observer: they journey through archipelagos of creation, where each work becomes an island revealing a vision, a question. This journey expands the gaze, making the world more complex, richer, and more vibrant.

NOIR MATTERS is not content with simply exhibiting. It seeks to transform the visitor into an active participant in a sensitive form of resistance. Indeed, it is not only about looking, but about allowing oneself to be traversed by a multiplicity of gestures, memories, and narratives. In this way, the exhibition embodies the very mission of AR(t]CHIPEL: giving voice to both established artists and emerging talents, and contributing to the redefinition of a Centre-Val de Loire that is lively, creative, and culturally inclusive. At the same time, it reinforces the festival’s spirit: an invitation to inhabit the world differently through aesthetic experience and critical thought—something our time needs now more than ever.

Anne-Laure Chamboissier, Curator of the AR(t]CHIPEL Festival