This summer, from July 5 to September 21, the Yan’ Dargent Museum presents the exhibition “Yan’ Dargent et le mystère breton” : paysages, légendes et saints”, accompanied by an unpublished text by Philippe Le Guillou.
A renowned writer, author of a prolific body of work inspired by Brittany and the Celtic world in general, his autobiography, power and its places, painting, Paris, faith and religion. The writer found in the painter his own Brittany.
Both Le Guillou and Dargent spent their childhood close to nature. Le Guillou’s Brittany is the one shown and told to him by his grandfathers in Le Faou: Jean, the storyteller, and Gabriel, the taciturn, two “ferrymen” says the writer. Gabriel, brought up “to love God and the earth (in that order)”, goes off alone every day into the Cranou forest, like the lumberjack drawn by Yan’ Dargent. His grandson accompanies the silent, contemplative man, feeding off his silences. If Le Guillou is “the son of a legend and of a land”, he also owes it to the tale of intercession and evil spells told to him by his other grandfather, Jean. And when he’s alone in his paternal grandparents’ attic in Kerrod, he lets himself daydream.
Orphaned from his mother at the age of two. Yan’ Dargent was raised by his grandparents, Pierre and Jeanne Vincente Robée. Before running a coaching inn called “Ti Robée”, Pierre Robée had been a farmer-merchant at the Brézal manor, and his new inn (coaching inn and tobacconist’s) in Kérivin is not far removed from this. All his life, Yan’ Dargent will draw and paint the trees, the pond and his memories of Brézal. In contact with his grandfather, he learned to observe them and undoubtedly heard fantastic tales. He would hear more from his uncle, Jean-Marie Le Thomas, who gave him and future folklorist François-Marie Luzel their primary education. Alone in nature, Yan’ let his imagination run wild.
Two landscape architects loyal to their homeland
” The forest and the sea, there are only these two poles, these two primordial truths. And I can measure the grace and richness of being born between the two, of having grown up, wandered and dreamed between the church of the tides and the sea. [Le Faou] and the woods [Rumengol].. Still unread, I know nothing of the arand schemes that give the Celtic world its imaginary framework. “.
The landscapes – rivers, shores and forests – that have shaped them have always had a mythical significance. As adults, Dargent and Le Guillou remain attentive to their childhood imaginations. Going back to the beginning, to the origin, to the world of wonder, of legend, of immemorial tales and myths that preceded their coming into the world. These founding dreams attract them as much as they frighten them. Beyond Cranou and Brézal, there’s Brocéliande, the standing stones, the washerwomen of the night… Fantastic tales handed down and reconstructed. The mythical motif of the town of Ys runs through Le Guillou’s work: towns, cities and buildings are threatened by waves and gusts of wind.
Both artist and writer seek transcendence. And they found it in Breton figures of the Christian faith: Salaün le Fol du bois, Saint Houardon guided by angels across the English Channel on his stone trough, Saint Guénolé riding alongside Gradlon… Or Saint Anne, patron saint of Brittany, so tenderly painted by Yan’ Dargent in the Saint-Servais ossuary, and who gave her first name Anna to Philippe Le Guillou’s maternal grandmother. Le Guillou and Dargent’s union seems without mystery.
Read novels or essays by Philippe Le Guillou: https: //www.gallimard.fr/auteurs/philippe-le-guillou
YAN’DARGENT AND THE BRETON MYSTERY, download Philippe Le Guillou’s text:
AGENDA
The meeting of a great pen and a great paintbrush celebrated at Saint-Servais:
FRIDAY AUGUST 1 at 2.30pm: Yan’ Dargent and Philippe Le Guillou in conversation.
Visit the exhibition Yan’ Dargent et le mystère breton and read extracts from books by Philippe Le Guillou on the same theme. In collaboration with the Médiathèques du Pays de Landivisiau network.
THURSDAY AUGUST 7 at 6:30 p.m.:
reading by Philippe Le Guillou of his text Yan’ Dargent et le mystère breton,
followed by a concert by Anne Auffret, singing and harp, at the church. Free participation with a hat. Inspired by the mystery of Brittany – its landscapes, its legends, its saints – this concert is a journey through traditional Breton song and the paintings of Yan’ Dargent. For each gwerz or cantique, the image of a Yan’ Dargent painting is projected.
Throughout the summer, the media libraries of the Communauté de Communes du Pays de Landivisiau invite you to discover the work of Philippe Le Guillou at the Yan’ Dargent et le mystère breton exhibition. The program includes readings with a selection of books, a booklet for young readers and visitors, café-lectures and a guided tour of the Yan’ Dargent et le mystère breton exhibition. For more information on the events taking place in the CCPL’s media libraries, visit mediatheques.paysdelandi.com.