Alain Biet

Alain Biet was born in 1959 in Montrichard in the Loir-et-Cher region of Touraine, famous for its vineyards since the Middle Ages. The artist is particularly known for his monumental installations of drawings of domestic objects, arranged in series. He draws all the objects that 'come into the house', a kind of ethnographic mapping, which he stages in a refined way. From this meticulous, hand-crafted enterprise emerge dizzying inventories with multiple interpretations. As part of the Artists and Farmers programme, Alain Biet returns to his origins as the son of a winegrower. In the past, he practised all the trades of the vine on the family farm, before embarking on an artistic career. With the title of the exhibition, the artist is asserting an identity, a history. And indeed,
"halleboteur" is a Touraine term used to describe a person who picks the grapes left in the vines after the harvest. The term also has a literary history: it is referred to in François Rabelais' famous novel Gargantua (1534), which is set in Touraine and praises wine as "a precious liquid endowed with great virtues". In a way, Alain Biet is 'hallelujahing' his memories, perhaps forgotten, and offering them a new flowering through a profusion of drawings of familiar objects linked to the world of winegrowing.

Exhibition co-produced by DRAWinternational and Les Abattoirs, in partnership with the municipality of Caylus and the Communauté de communes QRGA
Curator: Emmanuelle Hamon