Vita Contemplativa, curated by Sandrine Prévost-Servent, exhibition view, works by Camila Rodríguez Triana, Le Garage Centre d’Art, 2025. Photo: Ville d’Amboise.
Vita Contemplativa presents works by César Cuspoca, Camila Eslava, Camila Rodríguez Triana , as well as a collaborative piece by artists Violeta Cruz and Léo Lescop. Deeply personal—both in its intent and in the choice of invited artists—this exhibition honors art as a ritual: a silent celebration of what endures and what fades away.
Inherited from philosophy - from Plato to Byung-Chul Han - vita contemplativa designates a way of being in the world based on listening, slowness, silence and thought. It stands againts the tide of vita activa, which dominates today: a life of agitation, hyperactivity, productivity, where each gesture seems to have to be justified by its effectiveness or visibility.
To contemplate, is to stop acting in order to receive. It is as if entering into a relationship sacred to the world, where the sacred is no longer external, transcended, but internal: in the depths, in the obscure, in the withdrawn. Art here takes the form of a ritual, a silent celebration of what remains and what disappears. The artworks whisper the Earth and the original meaning of things. It celebrates the artistic gesture as a silent ritual that unfolds through space and time.
The artists gathered in this exhibition don’t only talk about the world: they talk with it. Each artistic gesture is a silent ritual that stretches through space and time. Like bearers of meaning, these gestures invite us to reflect on our own nature, with the matter that nourishes us, the earth, which keeps us alive and to which we will return one day
Curated by : Sandrine Prévost-Servent
