Ruinart invites Vik Muniz to the Palais Brongniart
Founded in 1729, Maison Ruinart is the very first established champagne house. Since then, it has never stopped developing and promoting its own art de vivre. Brazilian artist Vik Muniz is famous for using, and transforming, a range of unexpected materials: dirt, sugar, rope, clay… His relationship to organic matter results in work that play with our senses. In 2010, the documentary “Waste Land” showed the artist working on a project amidst the largest landfill in the world in Rio de Janeiro. Given his strong social commitment and his deep connection to nature, the artist was the perfect choice for an artistic carte blanche, which Maison Ruinart provides every year to a major contemporary artist. Ruinart invited Vik Muniz to Reims for an art residency, where he discovered the Champagne-making process in the Sillery vineyard with Ruinart Cellar Master Frédéric Panaoïtis. Now, Muniz presents “Shared Roots”—a series of works inspired by the relationship between man and nature—at the Palais Brongniart (on view until April 15th on the railings around the building). On the night of the exhibition opening, there were hardly any anonymous faces in attendance: Rossy de Palma, Caroline de Maigret, Thomas Dutronc, and Marie-Ange Casta, amongst others. The exhibition was paired with an exceptional performance by the Étoile dancer Germain Louvet.
