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CULINARIUM
ONE MILLION SPA RK LES In a glass of champagne, there are up to a million effervescent sparkling pearls. It is these fine bubbles that create the personality of the champagne and make up its identity. Only when the cork discreetly pops and the champagne, which has been fermented a second time in a bottle, comes into contact with the small i rregularities on the edge of the glass does the
SPARKLING ART Through its close and long-standing relationship to the world of art and design, R uinart is a committed advocate of contemporary creations and a partner in numerous and important art fairs around the world. Each year, the oldest champagne house in history commissions a new contemporary artist or designer to create an art project to artistically honour the house’s cuvées, history and wine cellars. Two years ago, the sculpture artist Jaume Plensa deconstructed the multilingual works of Dom Thierry Ruinart and, to a certain extent, broke them down into individual words, which in turn were broken up into letters and numbers like tiny, completely different cells ultimately yielding a complex whole. The sculpture “A silent witness”, is a sculpture of elements that reflect many languages. This sculpture of numbers and letters of eight different alphabets, Latin, Greek and Arabic which were of particular importance to Dom Thierry Ruinart, as well as Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Hindi, is anchored to the ground like grapevines in the earth. It is a reference to the roots of Dom Thierry Ruinart’s champagne. In 2018, Chinese artist Liu Bolin captured the extraordinary expertise and dedication of the champagne house with fascinating, breathtaking images. He placed himself and others against the background of different scenes in which they disappeared as if camouflaged. The painting “Deep Underground” takes place in the cellar and in the production facility,
the artist first moves into position with arms stretched out, he literally blends in with the elements of the cellar.
sparkling evervescent play begin as the fine bubbles burst into life, drawing out all the champagne’s
THE ARTIST OF THE YEAR FOR 2019 Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, calls himself a “low-tech illusionist,” someone who explores our collective memory to challenge it more effectively, using a variety of media such as photography, sculpture, and video, as well as a wide range of materials. He always questions our relationship to reality and memory. In his collaboration with the Ruinart champagne house, Vik Muniz succeeds in capturing the deep relationship between man and nature, winemakers and grapevines, with seven works of art, and by also illustrating the creative tension that can turn adversity into miracles, or how hard work leads to miracles. True to his artistic work, Vik Muniz first takes a lot of time for his thoughts and observations before embarking on the creative process and his artistic stay in Reims. He wants to express through his work what cannot be transported through language, which brings about the creation of some thing extraordinary, which has been translated through a creative process. SHARED ROOTS It is a traditional Maison Ruinart vineyard, located in the Montagne de Reims which is at the same time the northernmost of Europe. Vik Muniz spent many hours in Sillery and alongside Frédéric Panaïotis, Ruinarts cellar master. There, between
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aromatic f lavors.