The National Museum of the Renaissance Château d'Écouen, the Margency Children's Hospital (HEM) of the French Red Cross, and visual artist Caroline Desnoëttes have partnered to offer a cultural project within the framework of the Culture and Health program in Île-de-France. It was financially supported by HEM, the DRAC, the ARS Île-de-France, the association Sur un Lit de Couleurs, as well as the sponsorship of Vygon and the Dassault Group.
The young patients discovered life in the Renaissance and the world of dance through visits to the Château d'Écouen and educational activities at the hospital. Over the course of more than a year, they created, with the artist’s guidance, amazing dance costumes using expired medical supplies. Tubing, chemotherapy gloves, oxygen masks, infusion clamps, nasogastric tubes, bandages... all became, in their hands, material of unsuspected richness. Throughout the months, photographer Fabrice Gaboriau documented the workshops, visits, and educational activities, which formed the behind-the-scenes of the exhibition ReNaissance in Costumes. Enter the Dance!
Thanks to:
The National Museum of the Renaissance is proud and honored to host at the Château d'Écouen the project conceived by Caroline Desnoëttes for the children of the Margency hospital, as part of the Culture and Health program. I am delighted with this opportunity to bring together and foster dialogue between various places and teams over more than a year to stimulate the imagination and creativity of a hundred young patients around the challenges imposed on their bodies. Alternating with workshops at the hospital, the Renaissance Museum, as well as the Condé Museum in Chantilly and the Musée d'Orsay and l'Orangerie, welcomed the children and enriched their engagement with artworks and Renaissance dance. Eleven dances embodied in eleven costumes, installed in the historic apartments of the Château d'Écouen, invite visitors to share in the creative momentum that led to these costumes, crafted from repurposed medical materials that filled the daily lives of the young patients and their healthcare teams. The process of transforming everyday objects into works of art, so prevalent in the museum's decorative art collections, finds new expression in this exceptional initiative. I extend my gratitude and congratulations to the museum and hospital teams, energized by Caroline Desnoëttes, and express my appreciation to all the project’s supporters.
Thierry Crépin-Leblond, Director of the National Museum of the Renaissance, Écouen castle
The National Museum of the Renaissance and the Margency Children's Hospital of the French Red Cross invite young patients to enter the dance! In initiating the DANSE & MOI workshops, I wanted to create a dialogue between these two places, like a pas de deux, to reveal the creative imagination of the young patients.
The chronic illnesses and complex medical treatments of the young patients at Margency Children's Hospital (HEM) are managed in a constant ballet of care, attention, and responsibility. In this complex choreography with a fast-paced rhythm, as they face the challenges of illness, I proposed that the young patients enter another dance, one of lightness and creativity.
With the DANSE & MOI workshops, in partnership with HEM and the National Museum of the Renaissance, we invited the young patients to tap into a vital artistic energy to distance themselves from illness. Over the course of more than a year, I accompanied over a hundred young patients, aged 4 to 18, in a cultural and artistic exploration of dance. Throughout the workshops, held in specialized pediatric, post-transplant, and oncology wards, the young artists took on the challenge of creating 11 dance costumes using expired medical materials: sterile gloves, oxygen masks, tubing, capsules, syringes, gowns, bandages… Art, care, and circular economy fostered a dialogue between the sick body and the dancing body.
Invited to dance both outside the hospital and within its services, the young patients drew inspiration from numerous educational activities and exceptional visits: to the National Museum of the Renaissance, Château d'Écouen, Château de Chantilly, Musée d'Orsay, and Musée de l'Orangerie. They also shared rehearsals with Dancing with the Stars and welcomed dancers to HEM.
These cultural and artistic contributions nurtured the creativity of the young patients, turning workshop time into a welcome break in their highly medicalized lives. Step by step, we entered the playful dance with medical materials repurposed for creation. Over the months, medical IV poles on wheels transformed into singular dancer silhouettes, always with humor and grace. Imagination, rigor, and whimsy, like a waltz in three-time, guided the creation of these works. In dialogue with the collections of the National Museum of the Renaissance, these pieces tell a part of the patients' lives at the hospital.
The exceptional partnership with the National Museum of the Renaissance, along with the visits, educational activities, and the exhibition ReNaissance in Costumes. Enter the Dance! are tremendous ways to boost self-esteem for each patient. The DANSE & MOI workshops exhibition is a poignant meeting between Renaissance dances and those of HEM.
Caroline Desnoëttes