Day 3
Footsteps through history
There’s something about Château Orquevaux that whispers to you — even when it’s silent. You feel it in the floors that creak under your feet, in the pattern of light that shifts across old stone, and in the way the mist lingers in the morning, like it’s reluctant to let go of the past.
Yesterday morning we gathered in the dining room as co-directors Ziggy Attias and Beulah Van Rensberg shared the extraordinary history of the château — and it was everything I hoped for and more. It felt like being handed the keys to a story so much bigger than ourselves.
Denis Diderot
Philosopher, art critic, co-founder of the Encyclopédie and one of the great Enlightenment minds.
Château Orquevaux was once the family estate of Denis Diderot — the 18th-century philosopher, art critic, and co-founder of the Encyclopédie. One of the great Enlightenment minds, Diderot championed reason, beauty, creativity, and curiosity — all values that still seem to echo through these halls. That this land once belonged to someone who believed so deeply in the power of ideas gives the entire residency a sense of lineage — as though every artist who passes through is part of a much longer conversation.
Of course, the château has seen darker days too. During World War II, it was occupied by Nazi forces. When they eventually retreated, they took with them many of the estate’s treasures — paintings, furniture, and other valuable items simply vanished. Some of the château’s most precious artworks were later bequeathed to the Louvre, which in turn gifted back a series of prints — quiet stand-ins for what once hung on these walls. They now hang as reminders, not only of what was lost, but of the resilience and grace of this place.
The building has been rebuilt, reshaped, and reimagined across centuries — from hunting lodge to stately home, and now to artist residency — but its spirit feels intact. It’s a place layered with memory. And you can feel it — not as heaviness, but as richness.
There’s something grounding in knowing where you are — in being reminded that the work we make doesn’t just appear in a vacuum. We are always, in some way, in dialogue with what came before.
With love from Orquevaux.
Robyn xx
