The Mont-Cotton school in Bagnols-sur-Cèze trains young Swedes in art every year. From September to June, the students held two exhibitions at the Mallet cellar and at the Saint-Maur space and were able to learn French. The school, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary, will offer a major exhibition in July.
The Mont-Cotton school is unique in Bagnols-sur-Cèze. It is the only school in France to welcome young Swedes who want to make art and discover France. “It’s a school that depends on the Swedish government, it’s part of a network,” explains Héléna Schmidt-Bourges, director of the school, who created it in 2011.
Each year, this art school receives around twenty young Swedes (18 this year) who want to prepare for fine arts or another art school. “After high school, many young people in Sweden want to discover another country. This school is also an opportunity to learn French in addition to art. There is nothing better than learning a language on site”.
To successfully combine art and learning French, the school director prepared workshops at the start of the school year. “Last September, we participated in heritage days. It was the first time of the year that the students were exposed to the outside world. I asked them to make engravings in a participatory workshop. The visitors could thus participate in the works, it was the opportunity for young people to speak French”.
The school is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year
A little later in the year, the students created their first exhibition on the theme of “The human figure”. Their works were presented during the Christmas period at the Mallet cellar. “It was a four-week job. What is being human for them today, it was quite poetic”.
In May, a new exhibition “The presence of absence” was presented at the Espace Saint-Maur. “L“The students had a lot of nostalgic images of their families, among others, and what emerged was this notion of this presence of something that is absent and that created an opening.”, had underlined Héléna Bourges-Schmidt.
This year, the Mont-Cotton school is celebrating its 15th anniversary. To celebrate this, many students (from all classes since 2011) will come and prepare an exhibition on the theme of a good franquette meal. “There will be a lot of works about food. The big meals, the market on Wednesdays, it’s something that marked them during their stay in Bagnols. They’re not used to it in Sweden.”concludes the director.
