Artist residences
The priory was a place for artistic creation in the Prince of Poets' time and it still welcomes contemporary creatives (writers, artists, musicians and dancers) for varying lengths of time to explore all forms of art.
In 2019/2021, Natalia Jaime-Cortez (https://nataliajaimecortez.wordpress.com/ ) conjured an open and swollen space-time for her Les portants exhibition spanning the entire priory. Her artworks on paper (Les portants, Butinages) and collection of videos inspired people to explore the site in an explosion of colour. She formed for the foundations of her 72% collaboration by soaking her paper in the Loire with videos depicting the artist's water rituals.
In 2018, the priory played host to the artist Cyrille Courte (https://www.cyrille-courte.com/projets) who has a unique all-encompassing signature blending art, architecture and science. He graduated from Tours Fine Arts School in 2014 and soon found himself managing a project in collaboration with the scientists at Nançay Radio Observatory. The installations on display at Prieuré Saint-Cosme were both artworks and research items: his three almost ethereal structures were seen as entities, "geometric beings in space"*. Spectrum, Antiprisme and Galaxy created a dialogue with the site's architecture whilst the soundscape connected us with the cosmos.
For four seasons in 2018, the performer Fabien Delisle (http://www.laps-zone.com/) captured thoughts on a 10m piece of paper in the canon's refectory and let the meaning dissolve to leave a pattern, weave or texture. A great allegory for life that gives a glimpse of another form sparked by content (Noir Palimpseste).
Prieuré Saint-Cosme also hosted the authors Jean Pascal Dubost, Pierre Senges, Carole Martinez and Anne-James Chaton at writer residencies between 2015 and 2017 with the regional CICLIC literature, image and culture agency.