Project
Une famille de mécènes originaires de Roscoff, très attachée à la Bretagne, a acquis cette belle demeure délaissée du XVIIe siècle pour lui redonner vie, y créer un espace exceptionnel et partager avec le public sa collection de tableaux. Leur engagement passionné pourrait être inspiré par ces quelques mots-clés: culture, tradition, confluences, transmission, bien commun, innovation.
"Museum" car l’intention est bien d’y maintenir une rigueur scientifique solide, tant de la vision programmatique globale, à la fois historique et architectnonique, que par la qualité des oeuvres exposées ainsi que des publications à venir y relatives.
"Amoureux" (in love) to convey a deep and affective relationship with this territory, while also allowing the freedom to share a wide range of things — simply because they are loved.
And of course "Bretagne" (Brittany), because the MAB will be rooted in this region of strong identity, one that is by nature open to the world, thanks to what the eminent historian Fernand Braudel called the "first seafaring people of Europe" — he himself sensitive to those "long durations" that we sometimes lack when immediacy and globalisation distance us from our identities.
The ground floor and upper floor will be dedicated to the story of Roscoff, from a historical and artistic perspective. Through the figures and painters who brought it to life, the general will be told through the particular, in a vivid and embodied way, supported by contemporary communication tools.
What do we know today about the golden age of northern Brittany? Who were these Roscoff merchants and privateers who opened trading posts from Seville to Lübeck, besieged La Rochelle at Richelieu's request, and attacked Sardinia? All of this, five centuries ago?
In our more recent history, do we know of these Breton artists who went to Paris to contribute to the great movements of modern and then contemporary art? What sensitivities and colours did painters from elsewhere perceive in the Bay of Morlaix and its surroundings?
This type of urban fabric forms the interstitial zone between the port road and the agricultural land bordering the town. It is a mirror image of the sea-facing plot, but on the landward side. One finds a house with a main building flanked by two return wings on the street, framing a courtyard open towards the sea.
The plot extends deep into the block and enjoys a vast garden. This reveals a qualitative characteristic of Roscoff’s port fabric: merchant houses serve as interfaces between land and sea, and vice versa. The entire logic of the peninsula’s territory is contained within these arrangements of great architectural quality. Walls are omnipresent, marking ownership and recreating an Eden cut off from the world, at the edge of the port’s bustle, not far from a shared slipway.
Source: Roscoff, Heritage Study of the Town and Its Territory. École de Chaillot. Nicolas Clairand & Dimitri Dupuis, 2019
The building having been saved, a study is underway with a dynamic team of next-generation heritage architects already recognised for their expertise. Restoration works will begin in early 2025.
The founding patrons of the Association les Amis du MAB will continue to contribute, but this will likely not be enough. This Museum, open to all, will belong to its community.