ORA
ORA opens the door of the emblematic oratory chapel of Nemours’ castle to contemporary artists.
The project ORA was born of a desire shared by the town of Nemours, the director of it’s castle (Château-Musée) Jérôme Fourmanoir and the Fondazione, to open up the local heritage site to contemporary creation. This dialogue is taking place – and rightly so – in the oratory of the Château-Musée, where the artists’ works resonate in a unique architectural setting whose delicacy and verticality invite to contemplation. The space will successively be curated by the Fondazione, Jérôme Fourmanoir and the FRAC Île-de-France, (the local institution that collects, distributes and supports contemporary art in France and abroad). The exhibitions in the oratory, from now on dedicated to contemporary art, will coexist with the permanent collections and the museum’s temporary exhibitions throughout the year.
The word “oratory” is borrowed from the latin christian “oratorium”, itself derived from “orare” : “to speak”, then “to pray”. It seems to have settled down to define a space dedicated to prayer with the creation of the oratorian order by San Filippo Neri in the 16th century. This rich term, opens up the vibratory lexical field of speech, and particularly of speech as prayer. While retaining a phonetic link, the shorten word ORA got stripped-of its religious context and linked it to the Italian word “ora”, which means “now”. These three letters tend to express the shared desire to give space to the words of artists of our time.
