{"id":100499,"date":"2020-08-23T15:38:45","date_gmt":"2020-08-23T13:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/?p=100499"},"modified":"2020-08-24T15:14:49","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T13:14:49","slug":"villa-lena-evstafieva-jerome-hadey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/2020\/08\/23\/villa-lena-evstafieva-jerome-hadey\/","title":{"rendered":"Villa Lena (Evstafieva) + Jerome Hadey: a cultural experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thanks to Lena Evstafieva and Jerome Hadey Villa Lena opened to the public in the spring of 2013 with an ambitious and innovative mission: to create a sustainable system that would combine a hotel structure, the Hotel Villa Lena<\/a>, an agricultural estate of 1300 hectares, and a residency for artists, sculptors, painters, designers, musicians, writers, video-makers, but also cooks and yoga teachers. Entrusted to the Villa Lena Foundation<\/a>, the residency offers the opportunity to live and work at Villa Lena for six weeks. During this period, the residents infuse the site with the energy, charm and character normally reserved to the art hideouts. This is what makes the time spent at Villa Lena inspiring for anyone there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jerome
Villa Lena, 2020. Ph. David Kaliga.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although inexplicably rare, there exist other examples of hotels that can boast the presence of artworks worthy of being defined as such. We can think of the Fife Arms Hotel<\/a> in Scotland, recently acquired by Iwan and Manuela Wirth, or the restaurant of the Grand Hotel Majestic<\/a> in Bologna, whose vault was frescoed by the Carraccis. Yet fewer are the places where, besides the artworks, one can find a constant presence of their creators, of that very special character and energy we have been talking about in relation to Villa Lena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lena
Lena Evstafieva and Jerome Hadey, 2019. Ph: Emma Tillman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To confirm how much the inventors of Villa Lena care about this atmosphere, we can just mention that the building of greatest architectural value on site, a late nineteenth-century villa that has retained some of its original furnishings, is used for the artist residence. The studios and workshops are located in the former stables, now perfectly equipped ateliers for music, video, ceramics, woodworking, or painting. The hotel\u2014though the word \u201chotel\u201d here seems diminishing\u2014is situated in the remaining buildings, renovated with a touch that we would define as \u201cVervoordtian,\u201d although not so much for the capacity to bring the past into an elusive present, or to transform philosophical principles into extraordinary marketing tools, but rather for the ability to give identity to imperfection. This is what we all ask from art. In the end, Hotel Villa Lena is Vervoordtian in terms of method rather style, which is decidedly less dramatic than the one adopted by Vervoordt in his Kanaal’s project for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Here<\/a> is our interview with Boris Vervoordt about Kanaal. Ed].<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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