For their series “Carte Blanche à…,” the Centre des monuments nationaux, the French federal agency that manages almost 100 national monuments across the country, commissioned Robert Wilson to create an artwork in celebration of Sainte-Chapelle. The iconic cathedral in the heart of Paris inspired an immersive 360° sound installation with music by Richard “Dickie” Landry. The work consists of fifteen speakers, positioned at various locations within the church. Wilson’s "secular mass," in which a child, a woman and a man respond to each other with short excerpts from "De Rerum Natura" by the Latin philosopher Lucretius, will occupy and structure the space in a new way, with the voices and Dickie Landry’s beautiful music resonating in the space of the upper chapel. Gloria echoes the stained glass windows of Sainte Chapelle: the birth of the world, the course of the sun, the soul, the body, the void, and the relationship of humans to the universe, to nature.
Gloria runs Saturdays and Sundays from October 8 through December 31, 2022. Since the number of people inside the church is limited, visitors must pre-book a time slot (9:30 AM, 10:30 AM, 12:30 PM, 1:30 PM, 2:30 PM, or 4 PM) for an approximately 30-minute session.
For more information and tickets, please click here.
