Christian Jaccard Room
Cistercian partition
Contemporary artwork was created to mark the 950th anniversary of the foundation of the Orval Abbey in 2020. Christian Jaccard uses the mural burning technique on the entire 18th-century vault situated beneath the church's transept crossing.
The work is inspired by the semi-circular motif found in ancient Romanesque Cistercian architecture and in the stained-glass windows of the present-day church. Against the whiteness of the plaster, the work is created by thermal convection on the walls and the extinction of multiple “braisillements”. The pictorial gesture develops through the fleeting incandescence of the thermal gel.
Contrasts of light and shadow underline the simultaneous play of curves and traces of soot. The composition takes part in the flight of evanescent flames beyond gravity to the contemplation of a constellated vault. The experience of creating in situ draws on the power of the site, and symbolically links up with the turbulent history of the Abbey.