graffitis à Chambord

Ayant passé breaucoup de temps au château de Chambord, j'ai eu le temps d'apprécier, outre la beauté extraordinaire de l'architecture (qui a encore beaucoup de secrets à nous révéler) et la symbolique étrange de la construction, tous les graffitis qui inondent les murs.

Il s'agit le plus souvent de noms, suivis d'une date :  Fossard 1737, Bruneau 1631, Maurice 1921, etc.
Il y en a des dizaines de milliers. Partout. Sur les cheminées, DANS les cheminées, sur les rebords de fenêtre, de toutes époques.
C'est un témoignage magnifique du temps humain qui a passé sur le château. Les pierres, le monument ne disent rien, ne parlent pas, mais les noms, les gens, leur visage par la signature expriment le temps et l'érosion.
C'est à mon avis la raison de leur existence.
Je ne crois pas que les graffiteurs ont envie d'âbimer le château, le détruire.
Ou peut-être que si, un peu, victimes du syndrome de Stendhal.
Mais surtout, je pense qu'ils ont besoin de marquer le temps qui passent, et leur fragilité humaine sur le monument de pierre qui veut nier le vieillissement.

chambord exhibition, part II

CHAMBORD EXHIBITION

a little book available in the Chateau's shop,

with important and new revelations by Prof. Glaçon

 illustrations of the book

 description of the castle according to the encyclopaedia

In its present form, the Chateau de Chaambord is at one and the same time an improvement on a pre-existing farm (there are other such examples in the surrounding area which have remained stable and firm … farm, stable and farm … whatever), and a draft for another chateau which was to have been far larger and more convincing. At first, the architects went about things in an odd way heaping up details, decorative features, windows and sculptures without any real overview. It was only later, after they’d popped these elements in any old how, that a semblance of order appeared and everything had to be taken down so what was now old could be put back into a new order. Quite remarkably, these painful developments are not visible in the end result’s handsome unity. But traces remain … in an attention to detail running counter to certain oddities in the larger scale. The fireplaces, for instance, are finely worked but are not up to the job of heating the building. No one worried about this, as their purpose was to speed up the transport of goods, dishes and servants rather than conduct smoke.