Alphonse DAUDET

Alphonse DAUDET

"Les lettres de mon moulin"

work created by Juliette BENTOLILA

For me, Alphonse Daudet's texts are memories of school, picturesque, amusing, sometimes terrible when the goat finally succumbs,
amusing, sometimes terrible when the goat finally succumbs. The panel I
I'm proposing is set in a playful graphic universe that appeals to all ages
Daudet and those who remember him.
In the manner of a collage, this board uses symbolic elements from the work of the author
that you can play at finding. The support, made of ceramic for durability
is made up of squares representing the letters of Alphonse Daudet's name.
Alphonse Daudet's name, or key images from his short stories: the goat and the wolf, the windmill
the goat and the wolf, the windmill, the pope and his mule, the stars, the oranges, etc.
The squares are oriented in all directions. The composition is like a
jigsaw puzzle that can be played on either side of the table. Wherever you stand
elements appear right side up. The work invites you to turn around the table and
to gather around it.
For the passer-by looking on as they walk, the jigsaw forms a large, fully-composed image
a single picture that can be read as a whole.
The image is rhythmic: letters and drawings, voids and solids, black and white, upside down, inside out.
white, upside down, right side up, sideways. The eye moves to the rhythm of the rotations. A
tension is created between figuration and abstraction. The gaze, like the hypnotic
hypnotic movement of the windmill blades.
In the village, I like to imagine a little corner in the shade where passers-by can talk.

Juliette Bentolila

Alphonse DAUDET. (Nîmes 1840 – Paris 1897)

French journalist, writer and playwright.

He worked for various newspapers, including Paris-Journal, L’Universel and Le Figaro. In 1858, he published a collection of verse, Les Amoureuses, and a novel, Sapho.

In 1859, he met Frédéric Mistral, and this was to be the start of a great friendship. The félibre welcomed him to his home in Maillane, and during the summer of 1860, he stayed at the Château de Montauban in Fontvieille, with his cousins. He spent his holidays there for 30 years.

In 1869, Daudet began writing the first pages of Lettres de mon moulin, one of the most popular stories in French literature. They include La Chèvre de monsieur Seguin, Les Trois Messes basses and L’Élixir du révérend père Gaucher. In 1872, he published

Aventures prodigieuses de Tartarin de Tarascon, whose character has become mythical.

Then Daudet suffered the first effects of an incurable spinal cord disease. He continued to publish until 1895 and died on 16 December 1897, aged 57.

LINK HERE

The Daudet Mill Trail in Fontvieille :