Foundation Journal: Create with the Château

(July 2026)

In July, a flag rose above a tower, a tree frog slipped into a painting, and the Château’s murmurs became a work of art.

On the Côte d’Azur, summer quickens the pace, while the heat reveals the growing fragility of our landscapes. At La Napoule, we choose to pay attention: taking the time to watch a work come into being, listen to familiar sounds, and allow a place to transform the way we see.

The Foundation champions a culture engaged with the world, one that welcomes diverse narratives and brings long-marginalized experiences into view. In July, this vision took shape in the work of Erin LeAnn Mitchell, Kaitlyn Tucek, and Shawn Pinchbeck.

Making Space for the Works

In the weeks leading up to the opening of Mise en abyme, the Galerie Blanche gradually changed. Paintings, textiles, and assemblages found their place through conversations and adjustments, revealing connections between the worlds of Erin LeAnn Mitchell and Kaitlyn Tucek.

Both artists had previously taken part in a residency at La Napoule Art Foundation. Returning to the Château renewed their familiar relationship with its architecture, light, and stories. Conversations and observations shared during their stay also fed into the exhibition.

The installation photographs bring normally unseen work into view. The artists and teams moved, assembled, and adjusted the works until each found its place in the Galerie Blanche.

Two Works Shaped by the Château

There Is a Safe Place to Land and The Unicorn Rests in a Garden both bear traces of the artists’ time at La Napoule. A flag reaches the top of a tower; a tree frog encountered in a passing conversation joins the figures of a painting.

There Is a Safe Place to Land

On July 4, Independence Day in the United States, Erin LeAnn Mitchell raised a flag created for the exhibition atop the Château’s tallest tower.

The raising of There Is a Safe Place to Land was accompanied by Going Home, performed by Alice Coltrane on her 1972 album Lord of Lords. Erin LeAnn Mitchell feels a particular connection to the album’s spiritual and celestial dimension, as well as to the melancholy of this Black American spiritual, rooted in gospel and the cultural heritage of the American South.

The song resonates with questions at the heart of her work: migration, belonging, the memory of the African diaspora, and the search for refuge. Through the accumulation of materials, patterns, and gestures, the artist brings together fragments of dispersed or erased histories.

Facing the Mediterranean, the flag—often associated with conquest—suggests here the possibility of welcome and a safe place to land. Wind, light, and architecture become part of the work.

The Unicorn Rests in a Garden

Kaitlyn Tucek created The Unicorn Rests in a Garden entirely during the weeks of residency leading up to the exhibition. The work’s poplar support travelled from the United States. It was custom-made for the project by artist Eric R. Dallimore, who has also taken part in a residency at La Napoule.

Upon her arrival, Kaitlyn heard that several tree frogs had found their way into some of the Château’s hidden corners. She was delighted by the thought. These unexpected little inhabitants seemed to have settled into the monument and were, in their own way, living the château life.

The artist had already determined the painting’s overall composition. Its figures were still waiting to emerge. The tree frog was among the first to enter the work. It embodies what Kaitlyn calls “collaborating with observation”: every conversation, encounter, or association can open a new direction in the story.

The title refers to one of the celebrated Unicorn Tapestries held at The Met Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s medieval art museum in New York. The creature rests tethered to a pomegranate tree within an enclosure. The low fence and loose chain suggest that it has chosen to remain in the garden.

The painting brings together a medieval reference, a support crafted by another artist from the La Napoule community, and an anecdote gathered at the Château. These different layers form a work deeply connected to the time of the residency.

Meeting the Public

On July 10, more than 200 people came through the Château’s doors for the opening of Mise en abyme. After several weeks of creation and installation, the exhibition opened to the public and to new interpretations.

In an interview filmed during their stay, Erin LeAnn Mitchell and Kaitlyn Tucek discuss their experience of the residency, their artistic practices, and the dialogue that developed throughout the preparation of the exhibition.

Watch the video interview with the artists

An Ecology of Listening

On July 19, Shawn Pinchbeck presented Murmures du Château, an immersive sound portrait composed from sounds gathered in and around the Château: doors, footsteps, voices, birds, trains, airplanes, rustling leaves, and the ever-present Mediterranean Sea.

More than twelve hours of recordings were captured over three residencies, between November 2024 and February 2026. An ambisonic microphone recording in 360 degrees allows headphone listeners to experience the depth and acoustic movement of the different spaces.

These sounds accompany us every day, yet often fade from our awareness. By bringing them to the foreground, Shawn Pinchbeck makes the Château the subject, material, and listening space of his work. The visitors, artists, and teams who bring the Château to life also become part of the work, often without realizing it.

Sharing the Château

A flag carried by the wind, a tree frog appearing in a painting, a door transformed into sound material: each work reveals a new dimension of the Château. Heritage, landscape, and contemporary practices come together in a space shaped by hospitality, freedom, and experimentation.

Mise en abyme is on view through September 20, 2026.

Throughout the summer, Murmures du Château can be experienced on Wednesdays during the evening openings and on Sunday afternoons in the Château’s salon.