Agnès Varda — Correspondances

Throwback to the exhibition by filmmaker and Academy Awards winner Agnès Varda paying homage to postmen and, in particular, to Postman Cheval.

Agnès Varda at the Tate Modern (2008) by Agnès VardaPostman Cheval's Ideal Palace

Agnès Varda

Having won several awards, including an honorary Oscar in 2017 granted for her overall career, Agnès Varda is, on an international scale, a key figure on the French artistic scene. Postman Cheval's Ideal Palace has collaborated with Ciné-Tamaris to pay tribute to Agnès Varda, who passed away on March 29, 2019 in Paris, when she was 90 years old. 

Visit to the Ideal Palace, Agnès Varda, 1955, From the collection of: Postman Cheval's Ideal Palace
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Visit to the Ideal Palace, Agnès Varda, 1955, From the collection of: Postman Cheval's Ideal Palace
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Agnès Varda was always very fond of Postman Cheval's work and loved to visit his Ideal Palace, as she did on numerous occasions from the 1950s onward. 

Old postcards from Agnès Varda's collection (2020) by Agnès VardaPostman Cheval's Ideal Palace

Agnès Varda's Correspondances exhibition highlights the connections linking her to this unique place. It is a window to her enjoyment of relationships sustained through correspondence, her passion for postcards, and her references to the emblematic figure of the postman.

View of the Correspondances exhibition (2020) by Agnès VardaPostman Cheval's Ideal Palace

Her works were rich and poetic—from photography and installations to films, documentaries, and short films. Her work also confronted the social issues of the latter half of the 20th century, covered the margins and precarity of society: Vagabond (1985), The Gleaners and I (2000), and also delved into women's status, like in the film One Sings, the Other Doesn't (1977).

Photographs by Agnès Varda and artworks related to some of her movies, such as The Gleaners and I, and Two Years Later, are presented alongside numerous pieces from her personal collection: letters exchanged with artists like Calder, Pierre François, and Chris Marker, collections of old postcards, and testimonies from people who have enjoyed her movies. 

Postcards written by Agnès Varda to Jacques Demy, published posthumously (2010) by Agnès VardaPostman Cheval's Ideal Palace

Correspondence with Jacques Demy

The winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1964 for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Jacques Demy is one of the leading figures of French cinema, just like his wife, Agnès Varda. His movies have become a part of the nation's collective memory. Agnès Varda wrote a series of postcards to him in 2010, which were published posthumously. 

Agnès Varda wrote a series of postcards to him in 2010, which were published posthumously. 

Le Bonheur (a movie written and directed by Agnès Varda), À la Poste (excerpt) (1965) by Agnès VardaPostman Cheval's Ideal Palace

Through Correspondances, we discover how the postal service and its postmen entered Agnès Varda's work. A brand-new montage, directed by Julia Fabry, highlights the epistolary and postal episodes spanning her cinematographic output.

Irony Point No. 57 (2015) by Agnès VardaPostman Cheval's Ideal Palace

The Postman of Bonnieux

Having spent 33 years working as the postman of the town of Bonnieux, in the Vaucluse region, Jacky Patin formed a fast friendship with Agnès Varda, who owned a house there. "We've known each other for over 20 years," explains the postman. "Her house in Bonnieux was on my route, I delivered her mail and we gradually got to know each other."

View of the Correspondances exhibition (2020) by Agnès VardaPostman Cheval's Ideal Palace

"She was so lovely. I even gave her a painting, as I'm an amateur painter." The portrait of Agnès Varda and Jacky Patin was displayed as part of the exhibition. 

Jacky Patin appeared in front of Agnès Varda's camera three times: in Two Years Later (2002), in the short film The 3 Buttons (2015) in which he portrayed a postman, and then in Faces Places (2017) that was co-directed by Agnès Varda and the artist JR, in which he portrayed himself. 

Irony Point No. 57 (2015) by Agnès VardaPostman Cheval's Ideal Palace

The 3 Buttons

The Correspondances project continues with the screening of the film, The 3 Buttons. Produced as a part of Miu Miu's Women's Tales series and presented by Prada at the Venice Film Festival in 2015, this short film again features postman Jacky Patin, who delivers parcels and messages to a 14-year-old girl working as a goatherd.

View of the Correspondances exhibition in the home of Postman Cheval (2020) by Agnès VardaPostman Cheval's Ideal Palace

At Home with Postman Cheval

"When I filmed Two Years Later with the same characters as in The Gleaners and I, I showed those who had agreed to talk to me that I hadn't just walked away from them. After, I found heart-shaped potatoes in my mailbox, in my hotel room … because when you harvest, you get to the heart of things." 

The installation in the Villa Alicius (Postman Cheval's home) consisted of a fabulous assortment of items, including conversations between Agnès and the gleaners, her so-called Potato Stars...

The potato costume (2003) by Agnès VardaPostman Cheval's Ideal Palace

...as well as the potato costume she wore at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, which was turned into an installation stating the many varieties of this modest root vegetable.

Credits: Story

Presented from February 15 to September 6, 2020
Commissioned by: Julia Fabry & Frédéric Legros
The Agnès Varda exhibition, Correspondances, has been created in collaboration with Ciné Tamaris, and presents a mix of artworks and personal archives, released by the Varda Succession Collection & the Rosalie Varda Collection.
Postman Cheval's Ideal Palace, Ciné-Tamaris, Rosalie Varda, and Mathieu Demy would like to thank agnès b., Miuccia Prada, Annette Messager, Alexander Rower-Calder Foundation, Pierre François, JR, Kikie Crêvecoeur, Jacky Patin, the Editions de la Martinière, and William Massey.

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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