On the occasion of the 5OOth anniversary of its construction, the National Estate of Chambord unveils the most ambitious exhibition of its history. Completed with the exceptional contest of the "Bibliothèque Nationale de France", the exhibition has been placed under the joint curatorshipo of the philosopher Roland Schaer and Dominique Perrault. It opens up the path for an unprecedented approach, simultaneously retrospective and prospective, linking past and future under the aegis of utopia and ideal architectures.
The patrimonial dimension : Chambord, symbol of the French RenaissanceThe exhibition combines on 2000m² 150 works and pieces of art, manuscripts, rare books, drawings, paintings, models originating from 33 international collections including 3 authentic handouts of the Codex Atlanticus of Leonardo da Vinci. An extraordinary discovery of the genesis of the monument and its king and builder, François 1er, as well as the one of Leonardo da Vinci who passed away a couple of months before the beginning of a splendid and unique construction yard.
The contemporary dimension : Unfinished Chambord
The initial project of Chambord has never been fully completed. The word "unfinished" deploys its meaning on two layers: its immediate signification, an aborted architecture, along with a temporal meaning, unfinished in the light of utopias closely linked to the intellectual, political and artistic context of its own period, one of the greatest of the French architecture. This dual meaning was the basis of Dominique Perrault's reflexion in order to celebrate the past and this anniversary-year while soliciting the inventiveness of tomorrow's architects.
The call for the project "Unfinished Chambord" has led, in March 2018, to the selection of 18 universities accross the world. Supported by Chambord's architecture, a cluster of projects proposing to revive the architectural utopia of the château has been developed, each from various cultural and geographical postures. Integrated to the scenography of the patrimonial exhibition, the 18 proposals are as many ways of thinking a reinvented Chambord, seeking to open up a reflexion on the real through a fictional representation.
Exhibition from May 26th to September 1st 2019
