Whether it is seen as a tree from the distant East, a biblical motif, or an evocation of idyllic islands, palm trees have taken on so many forms in the collective unconscious that the origin of its domestication is difficult to pinpoint. In this work, it becomes part of the Château’s history, since its shape is derived from in situ architectural elements.
A date palm rises from the castle moat where the “Tower of the Spaniards” once stood before being destroyed in a violent explosion in 1800.
Like the phoenix from which it takes its Latin name (Phoenix dactylifera), the tree emerges from traumatic ruins as a symbol of renewal and life’s victory over time. Yet the palm also carries memories of colonial trade routes that intertwined the forced movement of plants with the trafficking of human beings.
Louis Guillaume works with living materials gathered during his explorations. Here, he engages directly with the castle’s architecture: the trunk echoes stained-glass motifs, while the palms mirror the frond-vaulted ceiling of the staircase, a masterpiece of Flamboyant Gothic architecture.
The title comes from a 1466 text by Duke Francis II: Nostredict país. Guillaume reads it with mild irony as “our so-called country,” a reminder that this territory was shaped through encounters and influences from elsewhere.
The installation combines natural and manufactured materials. Pine resin collected through tapping captures traces of the past, while hand-crafted ropes weave a structural network that holds this new ecosystem together, perhaps one day providing shelter for future inhabitants.
Louis Guillaume was born in 1995 in Rennes. He lives and works
in La Rochelle, and is represented by Galerie Traits libres, Paris.
Artist’s Instagram account
Louis Guillaume’s assistants : Camila Proto, Jeanne Larnaudie, Pierre Grange
4 Rue Premion, 44000 Nantes
How to get there?
Parking(s) nearby: Parking Baco-LU 1 côté gare, Parking Decré-Bouffay, Parking Feydeau, Parking Gare Château, Parking Baco-LU 2 côté CHU, Parking Cathédrale
Public transport: Duchesse Anne - Château, St-Pierre, Foch - Cathédrale, Bouffay
Self-service bicycles: Station Naolib Vélo libre-service Strasbourg (n°3), Station Naolib Vélo libre-service Château (n°50), Station Naolib Vélo libre-service Verdun (n°48), Station Naolib Vélo libre-service Duchesse anne (n°49), Station Naolib Vélo libre-service Lieu unique (n°61), Station Naolib Vélo libre-service Baco (n°52), Station Naolib Vélo libre-service (n°1012), Station Naolib Vélo libre-service Foch (n°32), Station Naolib Vélo libre-service Bouffay (n°20), Station Naolib Vélo libre-service Moulin (n°4)
