The matchmaking is a site that is located in Trélazé more commonly called «La Manu» or «Les Allumettes». The factory closed in 1981. Long abandoned after its closure, the site of the matchmaker was bought in 2007 and built by Podeliha (Groupe Action Logement), whose goal is to preserve the industrial spirit of the place. In 2019, the social landlord inaugurated its first residence named «Les Allumettières» in memory of the workers of the site. This operation, characterized by the restructuring of the former halls B and C by creating 52 apartments, receives the Grand Prize of Architecture, Social Housing and Development in 2020.

The work

The project «The Lining» was created by Raphael Zarka, it offers on the site of the manufacture, two carved fireplaces. The first, truncated, heritage ruin of the Trélazé lighting industry and a new fireplace, 24 meters high sculpture whose base is offered as a room opened by four doors and delivers the surprise of a dizzying assembly of spiral bricks that opens into a hole in the sky.

The artist

Raphaël Zarka lives in Paris. He has made numerous exhibitions in France and abroad (Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Romania, Canada,...). His work is in the collections of the Musée national d'art moderne (MNAM) – centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Musée d'art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg, the Fonds national d'art contemporain (Paris), Fonds régionaux d'art contemporain de Normandie, Grand Est, Nouvelle Aquitaine, Ile de France, Pays de La Loire and several private foundations and collections in France and abroad. He is represented by the galleries Mitterrand (Paris), Luciana Brito (Sao Paulo/ New York) and Fabian Lang (Zurich).

National support program for artistic commissions of the Ministry of Culture

The public commission is the manifestation of the will of the State, Ministry of Culture - General Directorate of Artistic Creation, associated with multiple partners (local authorities, public institutions or private partners), to contribute to the enrichment of the national heritage and living environment, by the presence of works of art outside the only institutions specialized in the field of contemporary art.

It also aims to provide artists with a tool to carry out projects whose scale, stakes or dimension require unusual means. The public commission thus designates at the same time an object - the art which, by leaving its reserved spaces, goes in search of the population in its places of life, in the public space - and a procedure marked by different stages, from the initiative of the sponsor until the realization of the work by the artist and its reception by the public. This support for the creation of the Ministry of Culture responds to the challenges of expanding audiences of contemporary art and encouraging artists to create new and exceptional works.