" The exhibition Artists and Peasants: Beating the Bounds offers an exploration of the multiple and rich connections between artists and peasants in light of the challenges faced by agriculture today. Through a collection of nearly 150 works, the exhibition aims to contextualize and highlight the intersections between art and agriculture, while also exploring how this dialogue has evolved in the context of redefining the relationships between humans and their environment.

In recent years, artists have undertaken to move away from a depiction of rural life that sometimes borders on the idealized "image d'Épinal" to better understand the social, economic, and environmental realities of today's peasant worlds. They seek to more accurately represent and understand those who are both central and marginal to society—after having, for centuries, represented the majority of the French population—who now practice their craft amidst contradictory demands for productivity and respect for living beings. While the post-World War II era marked a decisive shift in agricultural production, turning towards an intensive and industrial model in the West, the beginning of the 21st century is characterized by an unprecedented transformation, driven by a new awareness. This dialogue between art and agriculture thus conveys essential perspectives and voices on the current challenges of working the land.

Through a thematic journey, the exhibition explores issues such as the representation of peasants, seeds, landscape creation, as well as traditional gestures and skills. It highlights both historical and emerging artists who place the figure and work of peasants at the center of their practice. The exhibition also reexamines the entry of the peasant world into museums in the 19th century, notably through painters like Jean-François Millet, Rosa Bonheur, and Jules Breton—whose works are exceptionally on loan from the Musée d'Orsay. These artists, interested in the outdoors, rural life, and animals, introduced the representation of peasant life and labor into the realm of Fine Arts. The 20th century saw the establishment and preservation of an agricultural way of life through the creation of ethnology and folk traditions museums, notably mentioned with significant loans from the Mucem (Marseille), a way of life that today's artists reinterpret.

- Excerpt from the press kit of the exhibition published by Les Abattoirs on the occasion of the exhibition.

Photographies courtesy of Patricia Musa and  Marie Sentenac.