Paint
Although no major painting movement has taken root in the Gard, many artists live here and open their studios by invitation, or showcase their work in adjacent private or community galleries. The town of Sauve is home to many artists' studios, and celebrates them on May1 with the Journée des créateurs and open studios. The Vidourle gallery, home of the famous American cartoonist Robert Crumb, hosts group exhibitions to suit all tastes.
Sculpture
Many galleries present their local or European artists, but in terms of contemporary art, the Château de Bosc in Domazan, in the far east of the département between the Pont du Gard and Avignon, stands out when it comes to sculpture. It was Albert Féraud, sculptor and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, who first encouraged this initiative by donating one of his works and becoming patron of the château grounds in 2002. Since then, over 200 contemporary artists have exhibited their monumental outdoor works. Since 2022, Barjac has been competing in terms of contemporary art, since the opening to the public of La Ribaute, Anselm Kiefer's studio, which takes visitors in small groups through 80 exhibition spaces featuring monumental works by the man considered one of the greatest visual artists of our time. Underground walkways, sheds, greenhouses, fields - the 40-hectare site immerses visitors directly in his art and his world. Other contemporary artists such as Laurie Anderson and Giovani Anselmo have created permanent installations at Kiefer's request.
Photography
For more than 25 years in Nîmes, the Centre d'art photographique Negpos has been both a laboratory and an exhibition space, a place of exchange and experimentation that favors research-creation. Each year, the center welcomes a French or international artist in residence, inviting him or her to look at the urbanity of Nîmes, its neighborhoods or the Ferias. Their work is then presented as part of the event Les villes invisibles which, in addition to photography exhibitions, brings together cinema and architecture with film screenings and public art installations. The Negpos gallery also offers an extensive year-round program.
Among the major artists who have chosen to settle in the Gard region, Rico D'Rozario, who specializes in portraits of musicians and the world of showbiz, should be noted. An Englishman of Jamaican origin who has worked in the United States and Europe, he has photographed pop, rock, blues and jazz stars such as Zappa, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Grace Jones, Al Green, Iggy Pop and Roy Hargrove for 50 years and has signed more than 150 album covers. Since moving to a village near Anduze, his work has been increasingly exhibited in the department, often in support of local cultural initiatives.
Cinema
Thanks to the diversity of its landscapes, the Gard region has been the location for numerous film shoots since 1910, when Jean Durant's westerns were shot in Vauvert en Camargue. Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1953 Palme d'Or winner Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of F ear) used the Anduze bamboo grove to recreate the lush vegetation of Guatemala. François Truffaut's 1957 short film Les Mistons, shot in Nîmes, marked the first appearance of Nîmes-born Bernadette Lafont, who was buried in 2013 at her family farmhouse in Saint-André-de-Valborgne. In 1975, the communes of Belvezet and Valléragues, not far from Uzès, welcomed Serge Gainsbourg and the cast of Je t'aime moi non plus. In 1986, Sommière played host to the partial recreation of Marcel Pagnol's Provence for Claude Berri's adaptations of Jean de Fleurette and Manon des Sources, starring Daniel Auteuil, Gérard and Elizabeth Depardieu, Yves Montand and Emmanuelle Béart. The same year, Gérard Depardieu continued his presence in the département with the filming of Francis Veber's Les Fugitifs, starring Pierre Richard. Older historical re-enactments have also taken place in the region: in Uzès in 1990 for part of Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Cyrano de Bergerac, in Beaucaire in 1994 for Le Hussard sur le toit by the same director, and also at Château d'Aujac for certain scenes in Arnaud des Pallières' Michael Kohlaas in 2013, which shows the Cévennes in all their wild magnificence. Beaucaire was also the location for parts of Rachid Bouchareb's 2006 filmIndigènes. In 2013, Katell Quillévéré chose Alès to direct Suzanne, with Adèle Haenel in the title role. In 2022, Michel Grondy will shoot a large part of his film Le Livre des solutions in Le Vigan and Saint-Sauveur-Camprieu, with Pierre Niney in the lead role. And the list goes on! A number of festivals celebrate the 7th art in the Gard, the most important of which are Itinérancesin Alès and DOC-Cévennes in Lasalle, which offer year-round screenings in neighboring towns and villages. Finally, it would be impossible to conclude this section without mentioning a great cinema legend who chose the Gard as his home for many years, Jean-Louis Trintignant, who died in Uzès in 2022.
Street Art
Reappropriation of public space, democratization of art, somewhere between the underground and the general public by its accessibility, urban art is a major artistic movement since the 20th century. Thanks to this form of expression and the work of M.I.A.O.U. (Musée Intercommunal d'Art Ouvert et Urbain) in the Cévennes, the town of Bessèges has regained its colors, even a new vitality. The former mining town, which has known a long period of inactivity and even poverty, has been hosting various original initiatives for several years. With frescoes or monumental works on low-income residences, public buildings, hangar doors or disused factories, one can walk through an open-air museum circuit that grows every year. The street artists L'insecte, Grumo, Foa, Ted Nomad, Nubian and the collectives Iretge or Lettres Capitales, to name but a few, have transformed the city and the way residents and visitors look at it through more than thirty works. Evoking the working class past and at the same time immersing us in often psychedelic universes with an animal side (tiger, whale, fox or of course cat are displayed), the creations bridge the gap between yesterday and today. Through participatory workshops offered to young people and residents of the Ehpad, the approach is inclusive, open and current.
