Saint-Emilion: Audrey Bakx puts wine in her art

CULTURE Artist and also winemaker, the young woman exhibits, until mid-September at the Art by Saby gallery, her delicate works that opens the doors of perception

Céline Musseau  c.musseau@sudouest.fr

She has two passions: art and wine. She made only one profession, quite unique: artist/vigneronne. This opens up all kinds of exciting and tasty perspectives for Audrey Bakx, as well as for art and wine enthusiasts. A graduate of Amsterdam Fine Arts, she is half Dutch by her father (read below) - she arrived in Bordeaux in 2006, at the time when she founded the Palatti collective with several artists

Audrey, who had never lived in France, was raised in several countries, speaks several languages and finally joined her father's passion to anchor herself here in Libournais, and create a world, a brand, a singular universe, full of poetry. That the public can discover until mid-September right next to the washhouse, in the center of Saint-Emilion, on the first floor of the Art by Saby gallery, with fifteen original works.

Salvific Distance

Her refined style, lacks neither elegance nor humor, improvising a salvific distance from the vulgarity of the world. She likes to highlight little things, these details that we do not notice but that create all the interest of a wine tasting for example, that she likes ritualized.

''I like to make the relationship between what is small, what escapes us in what we see in large, globally. We don't pay attention to the little things although we should preserve them.''

With Chinese ink, watercolor or acrylic, with a fine line, she draws characters who always have wine in mind. It's colorful, always, it's joyful, ironic too, sometimes cheeky.

Drawings like so many speech balloons in comic book or champagne bubbles which would sparkle in our brains. Which express evanescent, light atmospheres, symbolizing the part of angels, what remains after evaporation. Grogginess and its treasures of imagination.

Audrey also shares these little things through the design of stylized labels for bottles at Clos Monicord in Vérac. Where you can discover the full spread of her talents in the small shop at the winery. There are paintings always linked to the world of wine, tote bags, and above all labels that tell a story, reveal quirky thoughts, various series or even with food recipes. The labels can be collected, bringing another value to the wine.

The Monsieur/Madame de Clos Monicord gift box set. And two works on display, where wine passes from the head....to the stomach, a circuit as dreamlike as it is humoristic.

The exhibition can visited until September 13. Admission free Tuesday to Sunday from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and by appointment on 0557247303. Art by Saby Gallery, 17 rue de la Grande-Fontaine in Saint-Emilion. To find out more about www.audreybakx.com or on the Facebook page Monicordconcept

Monicord, a family story

"Making wine is making art," says Joep Bakx. This former Dutch hotelier, who worked in luxury industry around the world, left everything a decade ago to embark on the wine adventure.

’’ At first, about 20 years ago, I bought 12 hectares for my retirement. And then finally, ten years ago, I left everything to make wine,'' he says. It takes a certain amount of audacity, because no one in the region was waiting for them. But with the creativity of his daughter Audrey, they dared and embarked on the creation of a brand and two structures, one production and the other trading.

''Making wine means understanding nature, shaking up formatted tastes. We work with nature, there are fruit trees in the middle of our vineyards, and we are in organic conversion right now. We haven't used glyphosate for at least ten years and we've seen birds and insects come back.'' Today, Clos Monicord sells 90% abroad. To learn more about the commercial aspect, you can log on to the site www.closmonicord.com