Digne, a small village by the Eastern Alpes, with a strong connection to the mountains, and where the Réserve Geologique de Haute Provence and the Musée Gassendi, there placed, have been developing some interesting projects related to Contemporary Art. This workshop had emphasis in one of these special projects, Refuges d’Art, by the british artist Andy Goldsworthy. Developed by these two institutions, this project has been conduced by the director’s museum Nadine Gomez, linking landscape, science, and art.

1. Marta Rocha _ FBAUP
Tan sf or m_Acti on s
W ork sh op at th e Rés erve Naturelle Gé ol ogi que d e Hau te Pr ove nce
Digne les Bains _ 16th to 21st April 2010
Digne, a small village by the Eastern Alpes, with a strong connection to the mountains, and
where the Réserve Geologique de Haute Provence and the Musée Gassendi, there placed, have
been developing some interesting projects related to Contemporary Art. This workshop had
emphasis in one of these special projects, Refuges d’Art, by the british artist Andy Goldsworthy.
Developed by these two institutions, this project has been conduced by the director’s museum
Nadine Gomez, linking landscape, science, and art.
This workshop began with field trips to some of the refuges part of this trail. It’s important to
refer that this is an on-going project, as it’s not closed, and that every year Andy Goldsworthy
comes to Digne to work to another refuge. This project began in 2000, with a special link to the
landscape, but particularly with the mountain trails, to the act of walking. “This Project brings
together art, nature and territory in a way that takes local development into account.”1
Thinking that Andy’s work has a special relation to the trails, it wouldn’t be right to go to the
refuges by car. As this, this workshop was thought as a three day trail with Jean Pierre Brovelli,
our guide, to visit some of the most significant refuges, in order to experience in fact what Andy’s
work is trying to do. All refuges are small buildings at the mountains that recover an existing
construction. Most of them were a total ruin, and the project recovers its essential form, causing
minimum impact to the place, always without electric light or piped water.
Image 1 _ Sentinelle at Clue de Barles.
1
Gomez, Nadine, “Refuges d’Art” p.6, Fage Editions 2008

2. Marta Rocha _ FBAUP
April 17th
The first day started with a Sentinelle that marks one of the Réserve’s entrances to this
protected territory, at the Clue de Barles. The cairn, made with local stone, signals the three
entrances of the Réserve, and even though the form is the same, each one is different from the
others. The site where its placed is extremely important, not only for the symbolic statement of an
entrance but also for its form related to the landscape.
The first trail lead us to Vieil Escanglon, a climb trough red earth, underlined by the high
mountains where green grass and the white snow at the mountain tops were already part of this
project. Andy’s work uses this red clay, exploring the cracklelling as an effect of time in this
material.
The next walk is in direction of Ferme Belon, that was an important hiding place for the
Resistance during the 2nd World War. The landscape is completely different from the previous, the
pavement is almost black, like razors of shale. There, at the basement, almost as hidden too,
several arches in white stone that cross themselves into each other. The darkness of this place is
a background for the few geometric lights that give form to these arches.
April 18th Image 2 _Refuge Viel Escanglon (detail).
On the second day another journey, this time to La Forest. Another type of landscape, the trail
begins next to the river Bes, once again the river with its sky blue water and white pebbles, and
the climb trough narrow passages among dense and high trees takes us about forty-five minutes.
Our footsteps sound on the dry leaves, some birds, and always the sound of the river running.
The Refuge of La Forest rebuilt an ancient chapel with its small cemetery, and inside a small
chamber is created within a wood wall, the effect is remarkable: an ellipse niche in stone with a
zenithal light entrance at the top.
Image 3 _Refuge La Forest (detail).

3. Marta Rocha _ FBAUP
The next stop is another Sentinelle at the Vallé du Vançon at Authon. The road till there
crosses several mountains; once again the landscape changes a lot, the vegetation, the trees, the
topography, the earth. The place chosen for the sentinelle is very interesting, almost like a knee-
cap, an enclave, where this cairn assembles the form of the mountains behind it. This construction
was told us to have been a special case in its relation to the locals. Having a nearby village, this
work had to be presented and explained to the population. Although at the beginning people found
it strange and didn’t understood its meanings, now is some kind of a piece of art belonging to all
these people as they identify it as a special part of the village, a “symbolic guardian of their
community”2.
April 19th
The workshop’s third day was spent at the Musée Gassendi, with Nadine Gomez, and at the
Musée Promenade (Réserve Geologique Haute Provence) with Hervé Jacquemin.
This day was an important way to also get a different perspective and understanding on
Andy’s work. Especially with Nadine Gomez, a fundamental piece of this project that as the art
director and part of its conception and development, it was very important to understand the
method, the practices behind these works. To understand that each refuge has its own story, a Image 4 _ Sentinelle at Authon.
different approach to the landscape, a specific inspiration. But also to have conscience of the
difficult and complex work that involves executing these apparently simple pieces.
This visit was also important for knowing the first piece of all: the River of Earth at the
Lansdcape Room of the Museum. Witch was a piece made with scottish clay as a background for
the dance performance La Rivière de terre by Régine Chopinot in 1999.
2
Goldsworthy, Andy, “Refuges d’Art” – Interview p. 156, Editions Fage 2008

4. Marta Rocha _ FBAUP
Among works from the beginning of the XXth century, we can also discover works from
Herman de Vries, Joan Fontcuberta, and Mark Dion.
A new space of the museum is dedicated to Andy Goldsworthy’s work, gathering some other
works that he has made in Digne with a more ephemeral character, but also the sketches of the
refuges, photographs of those that are already built, documentation from all the on going process
and also a video documentary about this work.
The Musée Promenade has a different character, more related to the Natural History of this Image 6 _ Musée Promenade.
territory, it explores different paths about water courses, allowing us to understand the link
between landscape, science and art, witch are the main concerns for these institutions. The
museum shows a large collection of ammonites, fossils as a way of telling this territory’s most
ancient history. As it’s also here the Cairn Centre d’Art, we can also find cairns from Andy
Goldsworthy in several points of the museum’s park, as well an artist’s residence.
April 20th
The fourth day lead us to Col de L’Escuichière, where the trail crosses a different region,
where we can find lots of these black stones with a perfect white stripe within it. This natural effect
was due to a water sheet among these rocks that became these unusual stones. This was actually
the inspiration of this refuge, where Andy took several of these stones and made a wall
composition with five white lines aligned from the floor to the ceiling. This refuge occupies almost
a hidden place, and inside a small space to contemplate this sensitive work.
The last visit is to Sainte Madeleine near Thoard, another small village. This ancient little
chapel is in a unique place, a high point among the mountains that overflows a breathtaking
Image 7 _ Refuge L’Escuichière (detail).

5. Marta Rocha _ FBAUP
landscape. This work was a kind of rehearsal of La Forest, as the form is similar, but without the
light entrance witch has a more powerful effect.
Our track ended at this last refuge.
April 21tst
The last day was spent with Nadine Gomez at her office, and then in our way back. Once
again the meeting with Nadine was very interesting as we were given additional information about
Refuges d’Art, as a press book, an economical impact study, and also got to know other projects
supported by the Fondation de France for Contemporary Art.
More than a simple get to know Andy Goldsworthy’s work at Digne, this workshop actually let
a strong impact at the way I used to see his work. We can’t dissociate the pieces from the refuges
from the trails. The act of walking, the silence, the journey that always ends at a refuge. This
project has a specific meaning to each one that visits it, the tracks, the landscape, the river, its
relation to Nature as a bound. It was very interesting to me to understand its methodology, its
conception and to get in touch with the remarkable effect that these simple pieces of art produce
Image 8 _ Refuge Sainte Madeleine.
at one’s conscience. “Each Refuge is a creation to be reinvented both by the local people, who are
familiar with the different sites, and visitors who come along just for the day.”3
It’s in someway a delicate form of pointing us the beauty of these different landscapes, these
natural elements, allowing us to experience the work of art and Nature as a whole.
Marta Rocha
(all photographs © Marta Rocha 2010)
Image 9 _ The river Bes, witch has a strong
3
Gomez, Nadine, “Refuges d’Art” p.7, Fage Editions 2008 presence in these landscapes.

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Images 10 and 11 _ Vieil Escanglon (trail to Images 12 and 13 _ Ferme Belon (trail to the Images 14 and 15 _ La Forest (trail to the
the refuge and its interior). refuge and its interior). refuge and its interior).

7. Marta Rocha _ FBAUP
Images 16 and 17 _ Sentinelle at Authon (trail Images 18 and 19 _ L’Escuichière (trail to the Images 20 and 21 _ Sainte Madeleine (trail to
to the refuge and the cairn). refuge and its interior). the refuge and its interior).