Exhibition "Distilling lavender: the work of men".

The town of Ollioules is delighted to host the exhibition "Distilling lavender: the work of men", some of whose works and objects are on loan from the Salagon departmental museum in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence.

Combining the vision and techniques of two artists, Jaap Gardenier and Nicole Fayman, the exhibition presents one of the emblems of Provence: lavender, through the prism of the labor, the tools and the passion of the men who work it.

About the artists...

Throughout his career, Jaap Gardenier has taken up the motif of the representation of man at work and his relationship with the machine.

In the 1970s, he undertook a long study of the lavender distillery and produced a large number of site-specific drawings and prints.

These works depict every facet of a distillery, where farmers and farmhands grapple with the machine: from the arrival of the tractor to the loading of the still's vat.

He offers a highly personal reading of the workers' lives and bodies at work, emphasizing the strength that emanates from these men, rather than a faithful representation.

For her part, Nicole Fayman, who favors black and white photography, has always been sensitive in her artistic approach to the human body in relation to the machine.

"I prefer black and white because it captures the "synthesis" of the subject, whereas color merely describes it" Elliott ERWITT

The resonance between these two approaches was the trigger for bringing together these works - photos, prints and drawings - which, through different languages, tell us the same story.