Our monumental caves
An immersive experience
Our Troglodyte caves in Saumur
By their huge size and their labyrinthine-like nature, Ackerman’s caves recall the Jules Verne novel, “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” Like the characters of the famous writer, our visitors experience an exciting immersion inside the astonishing world of a bubble.
Firmly rooted in its territory, Maison Ackerman also fully invests in the development of tourism and the enhancement of heritage. It is the proud owner of an architectural gem, troglodyte caves – the highest in the region – currently used to display temporary exhibitions, bringing together wine, troglodytes and experimental art. Since 2009, this prestigious fine sparkling wine house, has decided to support contemporary art, in particular since 2014, with the creation of an artists’ residency: Ackerman + Fontevraud La Scène.
A voyage throughout history and time
If you want to take your passion for wines a bit further, Ackerman allows you to fully discover the heritage of Loire Valley wines. It also reveals its pioneering expertise when it comes to fine sparkling Loire Valley wines, and its leadership when it comes to the Crémant de Loire and Saumur appellations.
Relive the saga of Jean-Baptiste Ackerman, the pioneer of Loire Valley sparkling wines.
Learn about the secrets of the méthode traditionnelle.
Explore the heart of our unique and monumental tuffeau stone caves.
Keepers of a genuine treasure, our caves bear witness to a long history and the talent and the work of our predecessors.
Cave Artwork + Fontevraud
The process of creating a wine comes from a terroir, a vineyard, a blend, and Maison Ackerman’s collaborators, the expertise of which, has been handed down from one generation to the next… As a result, the wines produced by our winemakers express all of the expertise, innovation and creativity of our Saumur house. Along the lines of its wines, Maison Ackerman displayed boldness, when it decided to support creativity, most especially plastic arts. This project was a first of its kind for the region. Our house joined forces with the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud in 2015, in view of creating the ACKERMAN RESIDENCY + FONTEVRAUD ON STAGE. Each year this initiative allows an artist to make use of this unique creative space in view of installing an immersive exhibition, sublimating the location and emphasizing the magic of the region’s tallest caves.
Maison Ackerman's caves, an amazing creative haven
Maison Ackerman’s caves are a unique artistic location and an amazing creative haven for an artists in residence program. But this is not an art gallery. It is a combination of spectacular troglodyte galleries, magnified by unexpected artistic installations, for all to see.
– made to measure experiential and singular works of art
– grandiose and fleeting works of art, in complete osmosis with the place
– genuine installations, accessible to everyone, and creating emotion and surprise
Along the lines of land art, the artist uses the spot’s unique nature (troglodyte caves), its raw material (tuffeau stone) and its architecture (caves with cathedral ceilings) to come up with a creation. This is a form of art that adds to the location’s special magic. It highlights our values of accessibility and promotes our region’s magnificent territory. The residency welcomes an artist every three years.
Three galleries with a turnover of one artist per year.
Makiko
furuichi
“Flux des âmes” (2020-2025)
Makiko Furuichi, who has lived in Nantes for the past ten years, was selected by our jury to create a work in our Saumur troglodytic cellars.
It was in the 53-metre-long gallery that Makiko Furuichi painted for several weeks, perched on her scaffolding. It was a demanding task, and a real technical feat for the artist!
Drawing inspiration from the cave paintings in the Lascaux cave and the Yokai tradition, her work “Flux des âmes” is an ode to fantasy and reverie. Yokai are supernatural creatures in Japanese folklore who bring luck, or misfortune, to those they meet.
A deliberate and stimulating challenge for Makiko Furuichi, who decided to cover the ceiling of this majestic gallery by painting colourful phantasmagorical elements like ‘Yokai’.
AILO
Anna-Eva berge
Emotions enfouies (2021 -2026)
The acronym A.I.L.O. stands for Atelier d’Immersion Lumineuse et Obscure, and in truth hides a self-taught artist who has been fascinated by the interdependence of light and darkness since 2014. This exhibition plays with reflection and reality, immersing visitors in a multi-sensory experience. Fabrice Leroux accentuates all the visual sensations experienced by the viewer by adding a world of sound. As a multimedia artist, he creates resonances like seismic waves that transport us to the centre of the earth.
“The power of the rock that surrounds us makes the Ackerman cellars a magnificent source of inspiration. For me, they represent the belly of the world and plunge me into my deepest emotions. Like an extension of myself, Émotions Enfouies contains hidden treasures, transcended by the fire of molten light.”
françois
reau
“les astres de la nuit que j’aperçois à mon réveil surplombent-ils seulement mon visage” (2023 -2028)
The multi-disciplinary artist has been selected to take over the Ackerman cellars – and more specifically its “Royal” gallery – to create a unique artistic installation inspired by the history of the house of fine bubbles.
Fascinated by the spectacular cellars of the House of Fine Bubbles and by the spirit of the place, François Réau has come up with an installation inspired by the history of the house. His work, both terrestrial and celestial, will echo the year 1811, the beginning of the family and commercial history of Ackerman-Laurance. It was a year dear to Louis-Ferdinand, the sole heir, who based the origins of the Family House on this extraordinary year and celebrated its centenary in London in 1911.
The Grande Comète, a neon tube over ten metres long, will reveal the architecture of the sump in the Caveau Royal: a celestial vault adorned with 1811 golden snout capsules, like a mysterious, magical starry night. With his fascinating work, François Réau has chosen to explore the full sensory and dramaturgical potential of the space allotted to him.
Séverine Hubard
“La Salle des Colonnes” (2018-2021)
Séverine Hubard, a French visual artist born in Lille in 1977, has exhibited her work extensively in France, Europe, Africa and Asia. She lives and works between Paris and Buenos Aires.
“The initial idea was to reintroduce matter into the cellars, which were originally used to extract the local stone, tufa. I wanted to recreate the world of a slightly ‘mad’ architect, who would have built ‘props’ up to the ceiling to support the vault… I immediately had in mind the image of the ruins of the Angkor temples, the columns in the water reservoirs in Istanbul, or the stalactites in the caves. What’s more, the work will evolve over time, so it won’t look the same in 1 or 2 years’ time. The conditions are right for the vegetation in the caves to take over the material and the structures, giving them an authentic appearance, overgrown by vegetation, as if they had always been there”.
Les frères Chapuysat
La Loge (2019 -2022)
Grégory Chapuisat, representative of the eponymous siblings, has named his installation “La Loge”, in response to Séverine Hubard’s work “La Salle des Colonnes”, installed a few metres away. It’s a name that fits in perfectly with the artist’s favourite themes: architecture, ephemeral housing, labyrinthine huts…
“La Loge” is a monumental wooden structure, 7 metres high, born of an empirical assembly with neither verticality nor horizontality, an anarchic architecture, a hodgepodge of planks. It took 11m3 of wood, 10,000 nails and 8 weeks of work for the five members of the siblings to build. “La loge” is an invitation to explore, with the public taking an active part in the work: daring visitors can venture through a narrow passageway linking the cellar floor to its vault, revealing a suspended cocoon, a cosy nest in the heart of the tufa caves, or an extreme ordeal for the faint-hearted. The Chapuisat experience.
Julien Colombier & Audrey Guimard
Heterotopia (2019 -2022)
Stunned by the incredible dimensions of the cellars on their first visit, the artist couple drew inspiration from this mineral temple, where plant matter explodes in certain corners, to create a surreal dreamlike landscape. In the heart of the troglodytic galleries, in this unusual place that is conducive to escapism and dreaming, they chose to create a labyrinthine trail made up of four monumental sculptures that resemble islands of greenery emerging from the earth to provoke a four-stage visual hallucination in visitors. A false paradise suggested by four architectural mineral structures sheltering luxuriant vegetation supported by coloured lighting effects. Comprising both plant forms born of the artists’ imaginations and real plants, the work is intended to evolve over the three years of the residency, letting nature take over as the plants grow.
Bertrand Gadenne
“Fragments d’un paysage mythologique” (2017-2020)
Videographer and photographer Bertrand Gadenne is a French artist born in 1951 who has made a name for himself with his urban videos. In recent years, his work has been featured in a number of prestigious exhibitions, including: “Escapes”, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China. “Un monde sans mesures”, MAC, Sao Paulo, Brazil “Pièces Montrées-FRAC Alsace, 30 ans de collection”, Chapelle des Annonciades, Haguenau, “Pommery: dix ans d’expériences”, Pommery Experience # 10.
Thanks to his mastery of light sources and devices for projecting still or moving images, Bertrand Gadenne creates unusual situations that provoke a reaction from the viewer.
Interview with Bertrand Gadenne in the Ackerman cellars – “Fragments d’un paysage mythologique” (2017-2019)
Vincent Mauger
« Synthetic Monument » (2016-2019)
Vincent Mauger, the winner in 2016, is very active on the artistic scene: Pompidou Center, The National Foundation of Contemporary Art…
Vincent Mauger has bonded with this special location. He has impregnated its history, luminosity and atmosphere. This temporary work dubbed “Synthetic Monument” is a unique 9-meter high space, overlapping the existing troglodyte galleries. Vincent Mauger made this topography from colorful plastic crates with a hatched frame, recalling the ones used for handpicked harvesting. Their graphic side has offered a High Tech dimension to this 3D work of art, halfway between craftsman techniques and digital modelling, that is becoming more and more popular with growers.
Vincent Mauger – the Synthetic Monument exhibition (2016-2019) – interview in the Ackerman Caves
Julien Salaud
« Ecologia Naturotica » since 2018
Julien Salaud was a major revelation at the Montrouge Show in 2010, and has already exhibited his work at the Palace of Tokyo in Paris, Chambord, Singapore, Seoul and Madrid.
Evoking rock art, he came up with a moving and grandiose creation that you can entirely embrace. Recalling refined and fragile lace, the boldly drawn shape gradually takes form, across the ceiling and the tuffeau stone walls. Inspired by the history, luminosity and sounds of this unusual location, Julien Salaud, the 1st artist of this residency, created a temporary work of art dubbed « Heavenly River » (2015-2017). At present, Julien Salaud has returned to Ackerman’s caves with a permanent display called « Ecologia Naturotica ». This is a powerful work that allows visitors to explore the cave and to take part in a privileged experience, magnified by a visual ocean.
Interview of Julien Salaud, after the creation of his first work of art in 2015 – the « Heavenly River » exhibition.