Parade
May April 3 — September 28, 2025, Domaine de Chamarande, Chamarande, France
From May 3 to September 28, 2025, the German sculptor Stefan Rinck is in the spotlight at the Domaine départemental de Chamarande, owned by the Department of Essonne, on the occasion of an in situ monographic exhibition entitled Parade.
In the park, Stefan Rinck welcomes visitors with several monumental sculptures, each nearly 3 meters high. These figures are costumed animals in the Rococo style favored by the artist, a style full of meticulous details and opulence, which pushes him to overcome the harshness of the material. One of the figures is a hybrid monster, with a crocodile’s mouth and fur, clutching a jester’s puppet in its fist, while the other is a dog dressed in a ruff, presenting a human mask in front of its face. Their clown noses leave no doubt about the buffoonery of their characters. Carved from a limestone (Pietra Leccese) in Lecce, Puglia, these crouching sculptures are deduced from the block from which they were excavated, by hand, by the artist. The traces of percussion are visible throughout the sculpture, with the exception of carefully polished details, highlighting the nobility of the material.
In the orangery, an entire room is decorated in an intense burgundy red, intended to house around ten sculptures, from 50 cm to 1 meter high, carved from a multitude of stones of different origins and colors (white marble, black diabase, red sandstone, etc.). Installed on a large central plinth, these figures stand, hieratic, at eye level. Side by side, the troupe seems ready for the review. Here we find Stefan Rinck’s usual repertoire, whose sculpted subjects summon myths and conventions of representation of diverse origins. The artist interweaves stories and registers in a profane syncretism where Romanesque art hybridizes with Aztec influences, where the romantic reinterpretation of “Gothic” marries with the pop imagery of cartoons and video games. This is the case, for example, with the small crocodile in Croc Pope (2024) with bulging eyes, dressed in the tiara and pontifical cope, or the figure in Bookhead (2021), with eyes distorted by the grimace and hair styled with a central part merging with an open book, the perspective effect producing a sympathetic monstrosity. In this same room of the orangery, ink and oil pastel drawings hang on the walls, like a gallery of endearing or cruel monsters. Perfectly at ease in a historical and natural context, this small population of painted and sculpted creatures seems to resurface from ancient times and from a Nature with shady designs.
Obviously, the artist hides behind a seemingly good-natured or zany imagery, a more acerbic criticism than it appears. He was inspired for this exhibition at the Domaine départemental de Chamarande by a 17th-century French ballet, the Ballet des Fées des Forêts de Saint-Germain , in which the sovereign himself, Louis XIII, takes the stage to “represent” the very image of his majesty to the court and his subjects. This politically oriented ballet is also surprisingly burlesque, the roles being distributed among the important people of the kingdom who perform as harlequins, devils or exotic figures, in sumptuous costumes. The burlesque trait under rococo finery could not escape Stefan Rinck, who uses the springs of the grotesque in the purest historical tradition, the caricatured figures serving to mock the figures of authority.
However, where Aesop or La Fontaine had animals take on human roles, Rinck disguises animals as humans. In doing so, do they lose their savagery, or do they take on another? Reinvigorating stereotypical figures, the artist suggests a reinterpretation of the world and times, from his 21st- century perspective , subtly tackling the barbarity of progress and the primitiveness of scientific language. He also readily becomes the “king’s jester,” liking to refer to himself as a clown, tasked with diverting the viewer—yesterday, a king or prelate, today, an amateur and collector—from the mortal sin of boredom.
Around the exhibition
- Sunday, May 4, 2025 at 3 p.m.: opening of the exhibition , in the presence of the artist
- Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 June 2025 at 2 p.m.: “Creative Weekend in Chamarande” artistic workshop (all audiences – as part of the Rendez-vous au jardin)
- Sunday, July 6 at 11 a.m.: storytelling tour “The fantastic world of Stefan Rinck for families” (young audiences, ages 3 and up)
- Wednesday, July 9, 2025 at 2:30 p.m.: “Imaginary Creatures” family workshop tour (all ages, ages 6 and up)
- Wednesday, July 23, 2025 at 2:30 p.m.: “Imaginary Creatures” family workshop tour (all ages, ages 6 and up)
- Wednesday, August 20, 2025 at 2:30 p.m.: “Imaginary Creatures” family workshop tour (all ages, ages 6 and up)
- Sunday, August 24 at 11 a.m.: storytelling tour “The fantastic world of Stefan Rinck for families” (young audiences, ages 3 and up)
