CAIRN, Art Center

CAIRN ( Informal Art Center for Nature Research) has the mission to connect and shape its surrounding region through the eyes of various artists like Mark Dion, Delphine Gigoux-Martin, Herman de Vries or Andy Goldsworthy.

Created in 2000, on the initiative of the Gassendi Museum, the Cairn is an artistic laboratory supporting and spreading contemporary creations in a rural area. It offers exhibitions made by artists in accordance with a cultural programme and mediation actions with different publics. In partnership with UNESCO Geopark and local authorities, the CAIRN art centre produced an artwork collection on the Alpes de Haute-Provence territory. Conceived with the context in mind, disseminated near villages or along mountain trails, those artworks produced by the Cairn invite visitors to discover the landscapes they travel through in another way, offering a different point of view on locations, history and local traditions.
The CAIRN art centre is part of BOTOX(S), the contemporary art network of the Alps and Riviera, of d.c.a / French association for the development of contemporary art centres and of the ELAN network (European Land Art Network) and it benefits from the financial support of the Ministry of Culture/DRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region and the city of Digne-les-Bains.
Focused on contemporary art, the CAIRN art centre is part of the museum department of the City of Digne-les-Bains, a museum pole composed of two other departments :
– Musée Gassendi / Art & science
– Maison Alexandra David Néel / Art asiatique & Maison d’écrivain