Le-Secret-du-monde_Nathalie-Talec

Plunge into Nathalie Talec’s immersive artwork, The Secret of the World to dis-cover an unexpected artistic and sensory universe. It makes you realise that it is not difficult to make culture accessible to everyone. It is more about willingness.

The Department of Puy-de-Dôme is will-ing and that is why we have ventured into commissioned art and crowdfund-ing with the DRAC.

Now that this bold undertaking has been concluded, we are delighted that we were able to count on the support of various partners as the solidarity implemented around this work of art gives it even greater value.

Thank you to everyone for helping us to build a more inclusive society where cul-ture is shared with the widest possible audience.

Jean-Yves GOUTTEBEL

President of Puy-de-Dôme departmen-tal council

The Musée départemental de la céram-ique de Lezoux is home to The Secret of the World. This is by no means a recent archaeological find from the Gallo-Roman world, but a work of art created by the artist Nathalie Talec. While wan-dering around the museum, visitors are now discovering the huge face of a young women, as white as porcelain, emerging from the ground like a half-buried relic, next to the one remaining kiln from the Bompard factory. Nothing can prepare you for this extraordinary presence. This intriguing face with closed eyes. There is a semi-dark cavity in the back of the head in which the public is invited to enter for a sensory experience. It is

navigated through touch and activates sounds, scents and breath. The Secret of the World is Nathalie Talec’s response to the museum team’s magnanimous desire to produce a specific work to allow the sharing of experiences between the sighted and partially sighted. It is the result of a shared ambition between the museum and a small group of enthu-siastic and committed individuals: a partially sighted director/actor, a Braille book publisher, a neuroscientist, dig-ital specialists, a departmental con-sultant1. It is also the result of a process supported by the Ministry of Culture,

1 List of members of the artistic committee who supported the project cf page 12.