Dominique Pineau (@dominiquepineau) is a curator based in Paris who does not believe in school of thoughts in art and wants to believe in contemporary art outside of the white cube -but not only-. He is also a beekeeper because he believes in the future - https://www.miel-lamartiniere.com-
Images courtesy of Dominique Pineau - with a special thank you to Raphael de Villers for the postcards-.
I must have been 4 or 5 years old, when after returning from a weekend at cousin Simone's, my father decided on the way to make a stopover. We were surely in a bit of a hurry but my father felt that we really had to stop because we were crossing the Loire Valley : the Renaissance region. The thought of stopping somewhere, of seeing something, immediately enchanted me. The Citroën drove through the woods for miles, turning left and then turning right. So far, nothing was noticeable except the dense forest as far as the eye could see. So much so that my mother wondered if we hadn't made a mistake. A first sign, then a second, comforted my father on his itinerary.
After an hour's drive, the car stopped in front of a gatekeeper who opened the way for us to the mysterious destination. My father was happy, my mother offered us a cookie and I wondered what we had come to see that was so important. Taking the alley and still without guessing anything, my father explained to me that we were going to see a castle. My concept of the castle was pretty vague, I must have seen a few, but at that age it was the Playmobil castle that occupied my mind. When suddenly, I saw some white stones at the end of the alley. As we got closer, I started counting the windows I could make out, one, two, three. The further I went, the more excited I was to discover the building. The moment I could see it in its entirety, my fascination was such that it was crushed by this gigantism, suddenly a fear seized me. Was I facing a flying saucer ? Unmissable, disproportionate, it stood proudly in front of us. We were in Chambord ! I had never seen anything like it and I was struck down by this edifice. And that first impression: it was scary and too beautiful ! I didn't know where to look.
My father drew my attention to the incredible chimneys. To apprehend them, I began to count them again before stopping in front of their too many. After the explanations came, my father explained to me that it was King Francis I who had this monument built and that Francis I was a great king. Surely that was why on the scale of kings he was the first. And then my father mentioned a certain Leonardo da Vinci. The only Leonardo I had heard of so far was Leonardo in « Casimir » (French TV program for kids), but this one still looked more famous because he had been brought in from Italy to build the staircase.
After a while, we had to leave, but I couldn't take my eyes off the castle, there was so much to look at: there a steeple, there a sculpture. And the urge not to want to go ... it was fabulous, it was wonderful ! More than the explanations on Francis I of France and Leonardo, it was this building made of an assemblage of volumes, a very ornamental and very excessive play in the top part that impressed me as an enormous fantastic sculpture. I felt like I had seen something extraordinary. My father was delighted, my mother had bought a postcard.
On the way back, a battery of questions followed about the why of Chambord. But after all these questions, it was indeed an emotion that had sprung up in my childhood heart linked to the architectural genius of Chambord. This would probably mark my mind for a long time beyond my imagination. Every time I visit Chambord, maybe 3 or 4 since that age, the same emotion arises. — Dominique Pineau