Villa Arson
A jewel of the 1970s architecture, Villa Arson brings together an arts centre, an art school, an artist-in-residence programme, and a library, on a site embellished with a Mediterranean garden offering a panorama of the entire city.
A jewel of the 1970s architecture, Villa Arson brings together an arts centre, an art school, an artist-in-residence programme, and a library, on a site embellished with a Mediterranean garden offering a panorama of the entire city.
Programme
The Anointing, Lukas Meir
What has become of holidays in the age of late capitalism? This is the question that drives Lukas Meir's pictorial and sculptural work, as he observes beaches crowded with bodies, veritable temples in which this strange profane, or ‘almost religious’, ritual seems to take place. A ritual that ‘promises redemption from earthly suffering’, manifested in the happy acceptance of a wound: sunburn. Lukas Meir sees it as an act of faith, the self-punishment of a martyred society, ‘ready to die for its belief in eternal growth’.
In the ironic and deliberately exaggerated economy of this metaphor, a fundamental role is played by sun cream: an attempt at protection and healing, an ‘SPF 50 extreme unction’. This sun cream appears on the injured skins of the bathers in a grotesque and disturbing way: sometimes clown make-up, sometimes smeared until the faces are completely covered, the coarseness of these white spots contrasts with the artist's otherwise realistic and very fine brushwork, capable of quoting certain great masters of the past while desacralising them.
Lukas Meir is the winner of the 2023 Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation Fellowship.
Sweet days of Discipline
This exhibition brings together the 44 artists who graduated from Villa Arson in 2023. It is organised by the editors (Alice Dusapin, Martin Laborde and Baptiste Pinteaux) of the art magazine octopus notes.
‘How did you feel a year after leaving school? What was your life like? What do 44 artists who graduated just one year ago have in common?’ To help us answer these questions, we put them to a number of artists whose practices clearly echoed those of the exhibition. Their answers reflect some of the immediate concerns of young graduates. They speak of economic difficulties, the desire to stand out, to find personal tools of expression, the need to create emptiness in response to the social injunctions of the art world, and the need to better understand how to reconcile their idea of an artist's life with the means at their disposal. But all these difficulties never get the better of a light, optimistic nostalgia, that of a casual energy that the title of the exhibition, Sweet Days of Discipline, borrowed from Fleur Jaeggy's novel, should make us see here.
Access
Villa Arson
20, avenue Stephen-Liegeard
06100 Nice
Tram Le Ray
A8, sortie Nice Nord
+33 (0)4 92 07 73 73
villa-arson.org
Every day except on Tuesday: 2pm - 7pm in July & Aug. ;
2pm - 6pm in Jun. & Sep. Open on 14 Jul. & 15 Aug.
Free entry.
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PLACES TO DISCOVER
• Castle Hill Park : climbing the hill of the Castle to enjoy a royal view of the Baie des Anges, a fresh and timeless walk near the beautiful neo-classical cemetery.
PLACES TO DRINK
• Place du Pin : the inhabitants of Nice call it their “Petit Marais”. Located in the Vieux-Nice.
• Le Negresco : an iconic place with a hotel, two restaurants and a bar.
On the roofs of Nice
All the great beachfront hotels have their rooftop. Ideal for a cocktail, a lunch or a coffee.
PLACES TO STAY
• Le Windsor, Jungle Art Hotel : a charming hotel with bedrooms decorated with contemporary artworks. A beautiful garden to enjoy your breakfast or your cocktails…
• Hôtel Amour : le dernier né de la famille Amour : 38 bedrooms, a restaurant, a swimming pool on the roof, a tree-filled patio, collected objects and furniture.
PLACES TO EAT
• Le Plongeoir : a beachfront Mediterranean gourmet restaurant in a chic setting.
• Bocca : the new food and lifestyle experience in Nice: a sharing restaurant, a luxuriant rooftop and a cheerful atmosphere.
• Le Lavomatique : a bistronomic cuisine, delicious food to share in the old town.
• Le Local : a preserved address in the harbour district, high-quality Italian products and cuisine at an affordable price, elegant service.
• La Buvette du musée Chagall : fast food, a pleasant and bucolic break in the heard of Nice!
Garden of the Chagall Museum, open to all during the Museum’s opening hours.
• Socca du Cours Saleya : a "Nissarde" cuisine as we like it, to go!
On the beach in Nice
• Castel Plage : bistronomic cuisine, sunshades and deckchairs.
• Le Galet : lounge bar, spa and deckchairs, facing the Albert Ier gardens.
