EVENTS AT THE ROYAL CASTLE

• Last admission: 45 minutes before closing time
• Closed on 1 January and from 15 January to 27 January, 1 May, 15 and 16 August, 25 and 31 December.
• Click here to find out about opening times and admission charges for the Royal Castle
• Guided tours: 10.30 am and 2.30 pm, other times available on request (contact the château or the tourist office).

The Château Royal invites you to discover its various exhibitions:

• 1/ Permanent exhibitione ‘the exile of the Spanish republicans “ and ”the special camp at Collioure’.

They headed north in their thousands, women, men, old people, children and soldiers fleeing the dictatorship. The road to exile would be long and painful. That was the price paid by the Spanish republicans.

• 2/‘A common soul’ exhibition from 5 October to 12 January

Discover the exhibition ‘A common soul’ until 12 January: medieval, fortified and defensive architecture of the Crown of Aragon.

‘A Common Soul. Medieval fortified and defensive architecture of the Crown of Aragon’ by Luis Agustín and Aurelio Vallespín (University of Zaragoza)

* in Spanish, with simultaneous translation into French

Through a selection of photographs, the exhibition shows the link between the fortified architecture of Roussillon and the rest of the territories of the Crown of Aragon. This heritage is also revealed to the public thanks to a comparative study in which common constructional, typological and stylistic features are analysed in detail.

This exhibition is the culmination of a research project funded by the Government of Aragon, with the collaboration of the Department of Pyrénées-Orientales, the University of Zaragoza and the University of Perpignan Via Domitia.

Un Alma común, Arquitectura fortificada y defensiva medieval en la Corona de Aragón.

• 3/‘Sébastien frère’ exhibition until 27 October

the department of the eastern pyrénées presents – expos 66 – Sébastien Frère Aigües : sebastienfrere.fr

Sébastien Frère lives and works in the foothills of the Albères massif. 

He grew up in an artists' home, surrounded by masterpieces, art books and the works of his father Henri Frère, a painter, engraver and sculptor, friend and disciple of Aristide Maillol. His mother Raphaëlle was the daughter of the great Catalan poet Josep Sebastià Pons. The sculptor from Banyuls sur Mer and the poet from Ille sur Têt would meet here in the summer. This home was the cradle of his artistic awakening, not to mention the names of friendly painters such as François Desnoyer and Germain Bonel, among others, who frequented it. These excellent examples undoubtedly influenced his style, which really asserted itself through the practice of the arts of fire. He sought a harmony that linked refined calligraphy to the rich effects of enamel. This discipline is at the root of his sure touch. 

The environment as a primary source of inspiration 

Frère's work is inseparable from his environment. Living in the middle of nature in a mill surrounded by tall trees, he enjoyed an inexhaustible source of inspiration, and it is a whole world of rocks, water and trees that emerge from his canvases… 

Approach

Talking about a painting entitled Le grand plouf, Sébastien Frère says, ‘Memory and imagination are strange things. So my latest large-format painting on canvas was inspired by the memory of a deep chasm in which I used to fish as a child. I wanted to show, in the dark water, the reflections of rocks, foliage and first of all the sky.   Once in place, these celestial reflections took precedence over the first project, flooding it with the shimmer of marine light contemplated the day before. The old image was overlaid by the fresh memory of the last one, leaving the first composition visible’. 

Imagination and memory play a central role in his creative process. His approach is instinctive and spontaneous. These transformations can transform a woman into a bird or give human form to stones, testifying to the fluidity and richness of her imagination. 

What unites all his works is texture. On canvas, it may result from the simple jagged trace of a roller passing over a broad, straightforward monochrome line in white on black, while on another canvas, the surfaces are worked by superimposed glazes, creating a unique depth and complexity. On paper, he prefers the transfer technique, seeking to summon the accidents of the print to enrich a rapid composition. It's a move towards immediacy that reminds him of the exclamation of his painter friend Germain Bonel: Ah … to make a successful work out of a pochade!

Delphine Jonckheere

In parallel with the Collioure exhibition, Sébastien Frère will be exhibiting in the chapel of the Casa Restany in Amélie les Bains until 3 November, and in the autumn at the Atelier Hermann, avenue Foch in Perpignan.