They dance. Both chained together, carried away by the devouring passion of their embrace. The two lovers falter, and the dancer hanging on the lips of her partner returns entirely to the fragile balance of their relationship. For more than 130 years these two entwined bodies have been twirling in a frantic race, a “Drunken waltz, all rolled up and lost in the fabric of the music, in the storm, in the whirlwind of the dance” . When Camille Claudel reveals her waltzing couple, no one is fooled, not even her brother who very accurately describes this point of rupture between two soulmates who seem desperately here to form only one body. The fall seems inevitable, and yet the writer Jules Renard detects in these two lovers the crazy desire to “lie down and finish the dance with love” . Will the man let go of his partner or will they both sink? One hundred and sixty years after the birth of the artist, the Airial Galerie invites us to join the dance of Camille Claudel by giving us the privilege of welcoming one of the most famous creations of the sculptor. Her intoxicating Waltz is not the only treasure to discover... This confidential exhibition lifts the veil on this remarkable bust of La Vieille Hélène, an early work that Camille created at just 17 years old, using one of the servants of his parents. If the young woman looks tenderly at her governess, the artist's eye is implacable with reality. Folds, dark circles, wrinkles... The sculptor here lays the foundations of a theme that will tirelessly repeat itself in her work with the cruel representation of old age. Suddenly the rumor swells. You hear ? Between the passion of first love and the wisdom of an old woman, another sculpture lures us into its net. Call it what you want, Les Causeuses, Les Bavardes or La Confidence, before looking into this group of four women gripped by a secret. No need to listen, this enigma belongs to Camille Claudel.

DID YOU KNOW?
Cover this breast that I cannot see! Indecent, provocative, intensely sensual... As soon as it was revealed, La Valse caused a scandal. A subtle but blatant eroticism, so much so that Camille Claudel is ordered to cover the naked body of her dancer. The sculptor complies with the requirements of the Academy of Fine Arts and modifies her work. Rodin's The Kiss, produced a few years earlier, did not suffer the same fate. If the work leaves no stone unturned, critics see in this loving fusion a “admirable poem of flesh and voluptuousness…”.

ETERNAL CAMILLE CLAUDEL
From March 2 to 30
Airial Galerie, 61 rue de Galand, Mimizan
More information here.

Camille dances

After seeing Isabelle Adjani's performance in Bruno Nuytten's film, Joséphine Sarrazin made a promise to write a show about the tumultuous life of Camille Claudel. Thirty years later, the choreographer granted this wish and dedicated this dance to the artist. An hour during which the contemporary dancer shocks us, tracing the course of the sculptor's existence backwards, from her internment to her early beginnings. A rare moment of communion between two women which only lasted the time of one dance...

THEATER - CINEMA LE PARNASSE
3 rue de la Gare, 40200 Mimizan
March 2, 2024 at 5 p.m. - Price: €15/18