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For over twenty years, the Reims-based house, Vranken Pommery Monopole has transformed its caves into a space for artistic experimentation, making contemporary art from around the world resonate in its caves and garden.
The new Pommery experience #18 has the theme «Mélodies en sous-sol».
A theme that adapts to the sonorous and joyful effervescence of Pommery champagne, sparkling, lively and in harmony with the diversity of the artistic creations presented.
The Pommery champagne house was founded in 1836 by Alexandre-Louis Pommery. When he died in 1858, his young widow took over the company and, faced with the growing development of sales, she had the brilliant intuition to transform the chalk pits into cellars.
The largest construction site of the century is inaugurated, French and Belgian miners exploit the chalk pits of the Roman era to extract the chalk and dig to connect the immense shafts together by galleries more than 18 kilometers long...
Originally, each chalk pit was 60 meters deep, Madame Pommery had them all leveled to 30 meters to offer the ideal conditions of a constant temperature of 10 degrees and 98% humidity all year round. She institutes the tradition of giving each gallery the name of a city in France and then, as commercial successes increased, cities around the world.
Since 2003, the couple Paul-François Vranken and Nathalie Vranken, respectively President and Director of the group, have used the Gallo-Roman galleries to exhibit dozens of works commissioned from artists, installed in the garden of the estate, in the cellars and especially in the cellars, and sometimes even directly created on site.
The 116 steps to descend into the majestic chalk pits constitute an incredible network to give free rein to the inspiration of around thirty artists in these dark galleries with sculptures and videos in a phantasmagorical journey of one kilometer.
NAM TCHUN-MO Spring - 2024