The ambition of La Cité Bleue is to promote the creation of shows that bring together the greatest artists in music, theatre, dance, the visual arts and the circus. Under the direction of the Swiss-Argentinian harpsichordist and conductor Leonardo García Alarcón, La Cité Bleue offers pocket operas, chamber music recitals, musical theatre, educational activities and hybrid forms in an innovative approach to these disciplines.
After years of closure for renovations, La Cité Bleue inaugurated its new, completely renovated auditorium in Geneva on 9 March 2024, equipped with acoustic technology that is unique in Switzerland. The Fondation Etrillard is taking part in the inaugural season as patron of the concert Amour à mort.
Taking up the story of Tancredi and Clorinda from Torquato Tasso’s 16th century poem Jerusalem Delivered, “Amour à mort” (Deadly Love) lies
halfway between madrigal, opera and interlude. Bringing together a series of pieces by Claudio Monteverdi and other composers from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, the music sets the pace for the on-stage action in which actors, musicians and singers perform all together.
Thanks to Jean-Yves Ruf’s masterful staging and Leonardo García Alarcón’s brilliant musical direction, “Amour à mort” brings to life a moving story of love and tragic death.
Tancredi spots a Moorish woman by a waterhole. He immediately falls in love with her. Her name is Clorinda and she is a formidable warrior. He seeks her out at every battle, even trying to protect her, until one day Clorinda changes her armour, wanting to go unnoticed. Tancredi does not recognise her and wounds her to death, thinking he is fighting an unknown warrior.
The Fondation Etrillard has four tapestries in its collection illustrating the story of The Liberation of Jerusalem. To echo the plot of the show, the Foundation has made available to La Cité Bleue very high quality digitisations of two of these tapestries, as well as a series of three videos explaining these 17th century works.
Thanks to this content and the support of the Fondation Etrillard, La Cité Bleue is offering its visitors an outreach programme around the tapestries on the touch table in the entrance hall, accessible to all visitors, especially young people. It’s a fun way to extend the concert experience, combining music and art history.
Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro was born in 2019 with the aim of giving life and soul to Palazzo Vendramin Grimani, historical home overlooking the Grand Canal, property of illustrious Venetian families and 18th-century residence of the Doge Pietro Grimani.
Opened to the public in 2021, Palazzo Vendramin Grimani is today the headquarters of the Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro, which, together with the support of the Fondation Etrillard, intends to transform the historic residence into a proper living observatory, a new place of transmission, study and artistic and cultural interaction open to all those who love, live in and visit Venice, both residents, students and international travellers.
The Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro offers a wide range of activities throughout the year, mainly by creating and presenting exhibitions, organising events, conferences, debates and book presentations, and meetings between various players in Venetian academic and cultural life.
Palazzo Vendramin Grimani, a residence on the Grand Canal and a window on the world, is open to artists in residence who see this city as a reference point of departure and arrival of a journey – real or imaginary – that unites the East and the West.
The Fondation Etrillard is a founding member of the Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro, and supports it through various initiatives aimed at promoting the city of Venice and its history.
The Fondation Etrillard is helping to bring this palace back to life by granting loans of works from its own collection. These loans highlight the collector’s spirit of its owners. The tour is organised around the confrontation of past and present artistic expressions. Tapestries from the Fondation Etrillard are displayed alongside photographs, watercolours and contemporary installations in the Palazzo Vendramin Grimani.
The Fondation Etrillard owns an exceptional pedestal table in gilt bronze, patinated bronze and Bardiglio marble. The model, undoubtedly created under the direction of a merchant dealer like Dominique Daguerre, was probably made around 1785-1790 by one of the greatest 18th-century bronzemakers, François Rémond. At least four other examples are known, all slightly different, two of which are in public collections: one in the Musée Nissim de Camondo, the other in the Spanish royal collections. The copy in the Fondation Etrillard belonged to great collectors of the twentieth century: Arnold and Jean Seligmann, then Helena Rubinstein.
The pedestal table in the Foundation has a gap in its design: an alabaster, an amphora-shaped perfume vase used to perfume the room, is missing from the underside of the table.
The pedestal table in the Patrimonio Nacional, owned by the Spanish State, is the most complete of the four examples and the only one to have retained its alabaster.
Patrimonio Nacional’s mission is to administer and manage the assets belonging to the Spanish State affected by the use and service of the King and members of the Royal Family, making it one of the most important cultural ensembles in Europe.
Patrimonio Nacional has granted the Fondation Etrillard a 3D digitisation of the pedestal table’s alabaster in its royal collection, to help it restore its alabaster and contribute to a better understanding and dissemination of its collections.
Founded in 1886, the École Boulle is an internationally renowned school of arts and crafts and furniture restoration.
Already a partner of the Fondation Etrillard for an educational programme based around its art collection, the École Boulle made two of its teachers (Cabinetmaking and Chiselling Workshops) available to visit the Palacio Real de El Pardo. They photographed and digitised the Spanish alabaster in 3D, so that a copy could be made in France to complement our pedestal table.
In 2022, the Fondation Etrillard co-created a two-year educational programme with Ecole Boulle, a Parisian school founded in 1886 and one of the leading art and design schools in Europe.
The Foundation is offering its collection of works of art for study by a number of 2nd and 3rd year art and design students, with the aim of promoting, interpreting and reappropriating its emblematic works.
This educational project is dear to the Foundation’s heart, as it enables the training and transmission of know-how to a new generation of craftsmen thanks to the objects in its collection, bringing together ancient art and new practices.
Under the guidance of their teachers, students from 8 different workshops (Decorating and Surface Treatment, Cabinetmaking, Marquetry, Jewellery Art, Chasing, Bronze Mounting, Sculpture and Furniture Restoration) practise both their creativity and their technique.
Once the finalists’ creations have been completed, a jury made up of teachers from the Ecole Boulle and members of the Fondation Etrillard meets to choose a winning work from among them.
In 2023 and 2024, one of the tapestries in the collection depicting the myth of Narcissus and Echo served as a starting point for the students. Woven in the early 18th century by the Gobelins manufactory, this tapestry illustrates the whole of Ovid’s story: Narcissus, leaning over a pool to admire his reflection, fails to notice the presence of Echo, the nymph condemned by Hera to speak no more, except to repeat the last words she hears.
This is an opportunity for the 10 students selected to reinterpret themes such as impossible love, the mirror or the echo.
Their work will be on display at the graduation exhibition for DNMADE (diplôme national des métiers d’art et du design) and DSAA (diplôme supérieur des arts appliqués) students at the École Boulle on 21 and 22 June 2024.