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Château de Montsoreau - Museum of Contemporary Art

The Château de Montsoreau - Museum of Contemporary Art houses the world's largest collection of works from the Art & Language movement. It is located in the Loire Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Maine-et-Loire, in the municipality of Montsoreau between Angers and Tours.

The Château de Montsoreau, in Gothic and Renaissance style, is located in the Loire Valley, commune of Montsoreau, in the south-east of the department of Maine and Loire.

Built in a strategic position, on a rocky promontory at the confluence of the Loire and the Vienne, it is located at the crossroads of three regions: Anjou, Poitou and Touraine. Transitional building between a fortress and a castle, it has the distinction of being the only castle in the Loire Valley built in the bed of a river.

It has been celebrated many times and in particular by Alexandre Dumas in his novel The Lady of Monsoreau, by William Turner in a watercolor also depicting the confluence of the Loire and the Vienne, by François Rabelais in Gargantua and Pantagruel and by Auguste Rodin, who idealizes it in a drawing preserved in the Rodin Museum.

Classified as a historic monument since 1862, it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site as the Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes-sur-Loire.

Since 8 April 2016 it has housed a contemporary art museum.

The name Montsoreau appears for the first time in its Latin form Castrum Monte Sorello or Mons Sorello in a register of 1086, in which Mons or Monte refers to a rocky promontory. The origin and interpretation of the name Sorello are still unknown but according to Ernest Nègre the term would mean "fawn" or "red".

This rock certainly owes its fairly ancient notoriety to the fact that it was located in the bed of the Loire, partially surrounded by its waters during periods of floods. Furthermore, before the construction of the fortress, an administrative or cult building occupied the site as early as the Gallo-Roman period.

Art & Language

Art & Language is a pioneering movement in conceptual art. The name was adopted in parallel with the creation of the magazine Art-Language, created in 1968; this magazine has had a profound influence on contemporary art. Already in the 1960s, Art & Language imagined a separation between the object of art and the work of art. He has included in his ranks: Michael Baldwin, Mel Ramsden, Charles Harrison, Joseph Kosuth, Joseph Kosuth, Terry Atkinson, Harold Hurrell, David Bainbridge, Andrew Menard, Michael Corris, Ian Burn, Philip Pilkington, Kathryn Bigelow, David Rushton, Mayo Thompson , Sarah Charlesworth, Christine Koslov, Paula Ramsden, Preston Heller, Lynn Lemaster, Graham Howard, Sandra Harrison, Nigel Powell, Terry Smith, Terry Smith, Lynn Lemaster, Graham Howard, Sandra Harrison, Nigel Powell, Terry Smith, Terry Smith. In 1986, Art & Language was nominated for the Turner Prize.

Architecture

The architecture of the Château de Montsoreau is also a pioneer of the Renaissance in France, the only castle in the Loire to have been built on the river bed. It is also one of the earliest examples of pleasure architecture in the Loire Valley. Built in 1450 by one of the richest men in the kingdom, John II of Chambes, first adviser to the kings of France Charles VII and Louis XI, ambassador to Venice and partner of Jacques Coeur. His exceptional and avant-garde architecture is explained as much by his travels as by his luck.

Museum of Contemporary Art and Loire Castle

The opening to the public of the Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art was made possible by the collaboration between the collector Philippe Méaille and the department of Maine-et-Loire. This took place in April 2016. This choice originates both in the exceptional Renaissance architecture of the castle of Montsoreau and in its location. Built on a rocky spur located in the course of the Loire, it gives it the distinction of being the only castle in the Loire to have been built on the river bed; right at the point where the Vienne flows into the Loire and becomes the widest river in France. Its location in the heart of the Loire Valley makes it a tourism mecca. The region has a strong identity and a very diverse international audience.

It is part of the network of modern and contemporary art museums in France such as: The Musée National d'Art Moderne, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris, the Louis Vuitton Foundation, the CAPC Bordeaux, the Magasin Grenoble, the CCCOD Tours, the Musée de Saint-Etienne.

Map: Château de Montsoreau - Museum of Contemporary Art