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In the subterranean silence of Reims, the chalk pits of Maison Ruinart
open like a stone book. These chalk cathedrals, dug centuries ago from the
remains of a vanished sea, now house a work that blurs the boundaries
between the geological past and the uncertain future.
With «Chorals,» the French-Swiss artist Julian Charrière (1987) offers a sen-
sory experience where the visitor becomes a diver in a phantom ocean. The
Champagne region was once covered by a warm, shallow sea.
The limestone strata that make up the chalk pits are its silent memory, made
of microscopic skeletons accumulated over millions of years.
Here, the rock tells the story of a submerged world. It is this memory that
Charrière describes: «To descend into these pits is to plunge into the his-
tory of an ocean.» The artist saw this as an opportunity for an encounter
between the echoes of the past and the upheavals of today. At the heart of
this permanent installation, a pool of black water reflects the chalk walls like
an inverted mirror. At regular intervals, a wave machine animates its surface,
creating a liquid respiration.
Visitors, advancing on a suspended walkway, traverse this shifting landscape
to the rhythm of the sounds that fill the space.
Ruinart Crayère
@ DR