Vign’art

The Festival and Gosset

Created in 2018, Vign’Art’s vocation is to promote the Champagne wine region through contemporary art and land art.

The arts of work in the 2nd edition of the festival will adorn the landscape from 15 May to 15 September 2021.

To support this marriage between Champagne and contemporary art, we are pleased to be hosting the “Réflexion en Champagne (Le broyeur de raisins)” (Reflections in Champagne (The Grape Crusher)) installation in our gardens in Epernay.

Come and see the work of Bob Budd which is part of the Festival’s route featuring 14 works of art.

About the artist:

English-born Bob Budd plays with materials to create sculptural works of art that are permanent or temporary installations. His works have been fashioned to blend into their surroundings. Bob Budd’s work is an ongoing conversation between himself and the world in which he finds himself.

“A rolling pin is used to flatten pastry, but when the imagination comes into play, it can be used to press grapes. The effect I want to achieve is to wrap the landscape onto the rolling pin. The overall effect should be both ironic and humorous and at the same time allude to the importance of the human hand in the creation of this landscape.”  

The artist’s tale

“Le broyeur de raisins” (the grape crusher) 

In the beginning, while the sun was still low on the horizon, a man emerged from the gloom and found himself looking at the tools located at the end of his arms, those things called hands, and wondering what they were for?

As he wandered through the landscape, he noticed that his hand had reached out to pick a grape from a small vine. Placing it between his thumb and forefinger, he squeezed it and the juice ran down his forearm. He licked it off. The taste was good. “Well, well, well,” he remarked, “these hands are pretty useful.”

In his joy, he pressed more grapes, then more. With time and practice, he became an expert, admired as an exceptional grape presser. However, after decades of this routine, the wrinkles on his hands had become rough and his fingers numb. He longed to recapture the feeling of that first discovery when his hands had instinctively reached out to the unknown.

The grape crusher concluded that his hands were dying. He sat down, took the last grape out of the wooden vat and held it between his fingers, glistening, succulent and juicy. It was still alive. “I haven’t looked at you for so many years. I’m so sorry. I forgot about you.”  He held it even closer and saw something he had never seen before. “But now that I think about it, maybe……. ?” 

Bob Budd