A fresh look at the textiles used in tapestry at Chaise-Dieu

The Abbey of La Chaise-Dieu is forty kilometers away from Le Puy-en-Velay, in the Haute-Loire area. It has an outstanding treasure within its walls, an unknown treasure; a collection of fourteen tapestries woven at the very beginning of the 16th century. Documents tell that they were first exhibited in 1518, and classified as a Historic Monument in 1844.

Most probably of Flemish origin – Arras, Brussels or Tournai – the fourteen tapestries make up a set of twelve scenes with two extra scenes. The cycle following the life of Christ from Nativity to Resurrection is complete, which is rare enough to be mentioned.

In 2007, alerted by the general state of preservation of the site, the local community (Department, commune and community of communes) decided to create a joint commission to carry out the work. In 2009, they were supported by the State, which classified all the abbey buildings as Historic Monuments. Major restorations were undertaken between 2015 and 2019 to go back to the original brightness of the drapes, which mix wool, silk, linen, gold and silver threads. In addition to the rediscovery of the colors, this restoration made it possible to remove previous restoration and thus find forgotten iconographic details.

In June 2019 Sabine Cibert proposed to accompany the creation of a work mixing textile and volume, prepared and created in a collaborative and collective way with the participants. From a reading of the shapes and colors of the tapestries, the participants were invited to produce part of the overall textile work.

This initiative was proposed to the local structures: the Maurice Chantelauze Medical-Educational Institute (IME), the Accueil de Loisir sans Hébergement (ALSH) at La Chaise-Dieu, as well as two Etablissements d’Hébergement pour Personnes Agées Dépendantes (EHPAD), Marc Rocher in La Chaise-Dieu and Deux Volcans in Allègre. The artistic project was conceived as an intergenerational and collaborative action. After workshops in which the compositions and colors of the tapestries were analyzed, the participants in turn made textile modules using winding. All these modules make up a new work, nomadic and adaptable to the places that host it, as it was done with the tapestries in the past.

Thomas Leveugle
chief commissioner
Festival International des Textiles Extra ordinaires

Translation FITE Rozine Inspektor, Manuel Benguigui