Avant premiere

This exhibition opens tomorrow 1 March and will run until the 25 August 2024 at the Musée des Abattoirs in Toulouse. 

The exhibition arrives at a time when we are experiencing an impassioned plea, more accurately large scale protests, from our farmers, in France and all over Europe. Their slogan is “we are dying to feed you” . Food for thought! The exhibition is both poignant and beautiful.

 Over 50 artists have contributed to the exhibition, showing around150 artworks.

The exhibition portrays the relationship between art and agriculture. Far from the traditional depiction of idyllic rural scenes, this collections highlights the social, economic and environmental realities modern day agriculturalists are facing. They are suffering from the challenges of achieving higher productivity at the same time as respecting the environment, with all its ongoing changes. It aims to show the difficulties that our farmers are facing, which are unprecedented, and that theirs is a profession in danger.

Photos, texts and paintings depict how our farmers are portrayed and how they are reacting to climate change and modern farming practices. Families with longtime traditions in the trade are adapting as best they can but there are an alarming number of suicides in this sector. 

Preserving the rural way of life has become increasingly difficult and buying locally, and directly from our local producers has never been more important. 

There are works of art on loan from the musée d’Orsay – from the painters Jean Francois Millet, Rosa Bonheur and Jules Breton, as well as works generously on loan from Mucem, in Marseille.

Other artists who are present include Agnès Varda the filmmaker and Agnes Denes, the conceptual artist whose iconic land art work Wheatfield – A Confrontation is on display in photographs. In 1982 a two acre wheat field was planted on a landfill in lower Manhattan, two blocks from Wall Street. The seeds were sown by hand, the wheat field was maintained for four months and eventually yielded over 1000 pounds of healthy golden wheat.

On the opposite end of the spectrum a section of the exhibition shows photos from Vietnam and Anniston Creek in the US. Some photos show the appalling effects of Agent Orange which have endured generations after Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War. Other photos show how toxic waste (PCB’s) from the Monsanto factory in West Anniston Creek Alabama have had sustained harmful effects on the health of the local population for generations as well.

Occitanie is a very important agricultural region in France. In this region winemaking, livestock rearing, fruit and vegetable farming as well as organic farming combine to make it the largest economic sector in the region. 

This exhibition is powerful in the portrayal of real life stories and challenges our farmers are facing and beautiful by virtue of its artworks.

I have included some photos I took at last night’s avant premiere, at the Musée des Abattoirs, in Toulouse.  

There are related exhibitions taking place all over Occitanie this summer from the Lot to l’Hérault and the Gers to PO and everywhere in between. 

Thanks for reading, Christina.