The South Corsican town is reinventing itself between modern art, gastronomic cuisine and its nature reserve.
The second edition of the Contemporary Art Biennale at the Citadel of Bonifacio, De Renava #2, has just opened its doors, still combining culture and heritage around monumental or conceptual works. If the epicenter of the exhibitions is located in the barracks of Montlaure, which has not been used for thirty years, there are five other places in the city that take place on the route that must be followed. Turned 360° with curiosity.
The most unique of cultural events
Created and directed since 2022 by three childhood friends, the Biennale de Renava #2 offers an artistic and heritage journey in six locations in Corsicana under the theme of the decline of empires. Like its palindrome title, Roma Amor, it invites repeated readings and journeys in one direction or another that are hardly ordinary. After entering the stage with the big international figures, we remember Origin:Anish Kapoor’s spectacular whirlpool, installed in 2022 on the bastion cape; this time it brings together works by Shirin Neshat, Laurent Grasso, Bianca Lee, Youssef Nabil, AES+F, Bill Viola, Kehinde Wiley, to name a few. that they…
AES+F
Cyclical, devastating and fateful, the carefully orchestrated journey opens with a magnificent portrait of Napoleon in the Montlaure barracks, on loan from the Fèche Museum in Ajaccio, a publication partner. The walk through the floors of the military building is divided into three stages between ancient mythology and the modern world: decline and emancipation, vandalism and heroism, destruction and foundation. A journey through time and the Mediterranean basin to the heart of a thousand-year-old city where ruins demand rebirth. And vice versa. Antiques mingle with graffiti. Sergio Rogers’ vintage linen Ionic column sits alongside futuristic creatures on aluminum by Salome Chatriot. Artist Alexandre Bavar installs a landscape of apocalyptic war, the last Basquiat recalls the vandal who was its author, while not far away, in the chapel of St. Bartholomew, in the video. Black sun By Laurent Grasso, a ghostly dog roams the ruins of Pompeii. Then, in the cellars of the Agora, a former nightclub, four tempera by the same artist seem to be biding their time. In the city, underground and under the church of Sainte Marie Majeure, a video by Bill Viola The Ascension of Tristan (The Sound of the Mountain Under the Waterfall) submerges the heart of Cisterna, the largest Bonifacian reservoir. An experience not to be missed.
Renava Press
Like its founders, Prisca Meslieu, Dom Marcellesi and Basil Isit, De Renava is full of energy and initiative. The leading trio is also launching the Wild Trail this year, a route of suburban works scattered through the mountain villages of Alta Rocca. Even at the water’s edge at Santa Julia Beach for video nights once a month.
Bonifacio Biennale #2, “Roma Amor”, May 10 – November 2, www.derenava-art.com
Discover Finestra!
Valerie de Bouchet
The new and first gastronomic restaurant in Cliffs City is located with a view of the navy. Beneath the vaults of this restored former Genoese shipyard, the hull of an upturned boat on the ceiling displays its mast, its spread sails and two fiberglass propellers gilded in fine gold, while a magnificent window limits the whole to a pure design. Here’s the decor. For the rest, it’s an odyssey. One year at the wheel. Italo Bassi, chef at Costa Smeralda, Confusione, the only star restaurant in Porto Cervo, supported by Eduardo Mena, his executive chef. The motto of this duo has already been noticed by Michelin. There he invents Italian cuisine, fused with his Corsican neighbor, with all grace and lightness. Sometimes during the upcoming action announcements, we could believe we were in a movie scene The menu, but at least the explanations of the dishes or the organized ironies are given. And the more we get into the game, the better we are exposed to this amazing flavor journey, where we jump from surprise to surprise, from appetizer to chocolate sphere, including crispy egg and its cream with Sardinian pecorino, sesame asparagus and truffle layers. . The double ravioli and its hint of fresh thyme are a hit. Desserts confuse us. Experience, of course.
Finestra, 51 quai Jérôme Comparetti. Only in the evening. 33(0)4 95 10 20 34, finestra-d-amore.fr:
Bush de Bonifacio Nature Reserve, the wind and the inside
By Renava, Felicia Cisco
Unique and atypical, the limestone town and its nature reserve, the largest in mainland France where the wind is said to be born, are surrounded by gems to discover and breathtaking landscapes. Let us set sail, discover the cliffs from the sea, and measure the scale of the citadel, proudly defying the elements. All around, while we are reminded of Ulysses and his Odyssey to the strait of the white bays, a quiet agricultural revolution is brewing in the surrounding countryside. Ancient, heroic and atypical. we cannot change the DNA of the southern enclave.
More information at bonifacio.fr
Source: Le Figaro
