Pilgrimage: A Suite Inspired by the Landscapes of Beaujolais
Patrice Giorda

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the Paul-Dini Municipal Museum is presenting two exhibitions examining the relationship between artists and territory: Here, Elsewhere and Beyond. Artists and Territory, at the Grenette exhibition space, and Patrice Giorda: Pilgrimage. A Suite Inspired by the Landscapes of Beaujolais, conceived in dialogue with the 18th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art.

Patrice Giorda’s works explore the relationship between an artist and a place, and the ways in which landscape shapes our collective narratives. Beyond its renowned wine-growing identity, the Beaujolais emerges as a living territory, marked by human encounters, agricultural practices, and places of everyday life and memory.

This series is the result of Patrice Giorda’s journeys across the vast Beaujolais region, stretching from the foothills of the Massif Central to the Saône Valley. In 2025, the collector Paul Dini commissioned the artist to create a new body of work, inviting him to depict the region and reinterpret its landscapes.

The artist’s journey takes the form of a pilgrimage—a quest that is both philosophical and artistic—through the region’s rich natural mosaic, in search of places that resonate with his own pictorial vision.

Drawings, watercolours, pastels and preparatory canvases reveal the different stages of this creative journey. Variations in colour, explorations of light and evolving compositions guide the viewer from one perception to another. The landscapes portrayed are real, born from the artist’s direct encounter with the world. Yet, transformed through painting, they become liminal spaces—thresholds between memory, perception and imagination.