Bienvenue Le Gai Saber ou le bien vivre tel que nous l'envisageons et le vivons
est une pratique de la générosité, de la convivialité, de la gaieté et
du respect. Maison Gai Saber a pris le relai du café de notre arrière grand-mère. Lieu de rencontre, de partage, les siècles ont passé, passent et nous voici confrontés à confusions, désordres, cataclysmes. Qu’est ce qui nous lie les unes aux autres? Welcome Maison Gai Saber is a community of artists fostering imaginative thinking and making. Inhabiting the old café of our grand-mère in the small village of Leigné-sur-Usseau, we are a non-profit organisation that supports multi-disciplinary artists with our seasonal residency program and symposium, providing a quiet space for artists to commune with their work.
“We want to be the poets of our life–first of all in the smallest, most everyday matters” —Nietzsche /
We have been involved in renovating and building with the help of former residents. All skills are welcome.
- Sur une zône frontière, mais sans mur, un seuil du Nord vers le Sud, que la Loire partage, nous appartenons à l’Occitanie.
- Guilhem IX, le premier troubadour avait sa résidence à Poitiers et ses amours. Sa petite fille Alienor d’Aquitaine toujours par les chemins y affronta ses ennemis et ses fils rebelles.
- Sainte Radegonde fit construire une abbaye sur le modèle d’une villa romaine avec des bains, des jardins de simples. On y recopiait les textes anciens
- Mélusine hante contes, manoirs et lavoirs
- C’est aussi le pays de Rabelais, Descartes et Foucault
- Nous accueillons artistes, écrivaines, universitaires. . . de toutes disciplines dans un espace protégé, au milieu du village entouré de champs.
- Nous prenons soin d’un verger, d’un jardin de simples et de fleurs, d’une vigne tout en rénovant les vieux bâtiments.
- Maison Gai Saber is a non-profit organization, set in the old café of my great grandmother. Invisible voices chatter all the time about personal histories, intertwined in the bigger history of wars, displacement of large populations, births, deaths, marriages.
- Three, four centuries have gone under the slate roof.
- The café was a place of rencontres autour de petits verres de vin de la région
- Today the residency is about people, confronting a harsh world, where everything resonates
- What kind of artistic vision is possible
- What binds us together?
- Set in a village, surrounded by fields of cereal, small woods, a river, we have planted an orchard, un jardin de simples, an herb and flower garden, un potager and we are caring for an aging vineyard
- Caring, observing, trying to comprehend the life of plants and insects.
- It is a place of memory, even if traditions are disappearing.
- Can we again inhabit those healing memories, and dismantle this hierarchical system?
–Francine Prevost
Accomodation + ResourcesLe Pressoir is a former wine press built by grandfather Henri over a century ago; now turned into a self-contained artist’s studio. It is comprised of a large living space with a kitchen, bathroom and mezzanine bedroom. There is also another small separate guest bedroom in a side-building and a large garden and outdoor dining area.
The Maison is a large house on the square of a small village. It has a big kitchen, well-stocked library and ballroom (where the people of Leigné-sur-Usseau got married for many generations). Outside there is an orchard, vineyard and vegetable/herb and flower garden.
Workspace The space is particularly suited to writers, researchers, musicians, filmmakers and artists of small forms. For larger work (including painting or sculpture), there are many outdoor spaces including a porch and fields.
Getting Around Leigné-sur-Usseau is a beautiful rural village half-way between Paris and Bordeaux. The train from Paris to Châtellerault (the nearest town) takes between 1 ½ to 3 hours. Once in Leigné-sur-Usseau, you can take long walks or bicycle rides over country roads and through the woods; Leigné-sur-Usseau is surrounded by fields and small forests. Please note: this is a small rural village, with no local stores, cafés, restaurants, or other outposts of civilisation. There are plenty of beautiful castles, wineries, medieval towns and more nearby but if you would like to visit those you’ll need to rent a car. There is no public transportation in the village. Be prepared to commune with nature, your work, and your host(s).
Costs Le Pressoir is a non-profit organization currently without subsidies. As such we’re obliged to charge a small fee per day to cover the basic costs of keeping the house up and running (electricity, water etc). There is the opportunity to help out in the garden, vineyard or with renovations at the Maison, which can help to reduce a resident's costs.
Apply Please send a short email to Francine [
TEAM
The symposium was held together with the Nietzsche Circle of New York City [
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Compagnie Gai Saber We are also home to the theater company