The contemporary stained glass in the church at Villenauxe was commissioned thanks to a bequest from a local resident. This outstanding creation, one of the largest sets of contemporary stained glass windows in France (24 windows covering a total of 200 square metres) is the work of David Tremlett in partnership with the Atelier Simon-Marq.

My intention at Villenauxe-la-Grande is to bring colour into the church, which enjoys wonderful natural light, so that joy and celebration may ring out throughout.

On 13 June 1940, the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul was bombed and all the old stained glass windows were destroyed. Between 1992 and 2000, Maurice Bouley, a resident of Villenauxe-la-Grande, made a series of donations to the village in order to fund the creation of new windows. In 2001, the village obtained government and local authority funding in addition to M. Bouley’s gift, making it possible to install contemporary stained glass throughout the church. Gaz de France also contributed to the funding.

The Diocesan Sacred Art Commission and the National Sacred Art Committee established thge iconographic programme for the windows based on a number of key themes:

• The four elements – water, air, earth, fire – at the east end
• Symbols of Villenauxe – clay and vineyards – in the ante-choir
• Mary, mother of humanity, at the north end of the choir
• Christ crucified at the south end of the choir
• The Paschal Mystery in the nave window.

An international competition was organised in 2002. Thirty-six artists, in partnership with master glassmakers, applied. Three were shortlisted but only two submitted their proposal before the deadline: David Tremlett and Titus Carmel, both in partnership with Simon-Marq in Reims.

On 13 February 2003, the selection panel voted unanimously for David Tremlett’s proposal.

The stained glass windows were made at the Simon-Marq studio and installed between August and October 2005. They were inaugurated by the Minister of Culture and Communication on 24 October 2005.

The light passing through the stained glass windows, reflected on every column and arch, creates an atmosphere that resonates throughout the entire church. The artist wanted the windows to converse with one another, convinced that there is a particular resonance or confluence between contemporary art and the sacred.

To find out more:
Watch the 52-minute documentary on this project: "Le Projet Tremlett, Sculpter la Lumière"
Read the book titled "David Tremlett, architecte de lumière – Les vitraux contemporains de Villenauxe-la-Grande” les éditions Lieux Dits

The British artist David Tremlett was born in 1945 in Saint Austell, Cornwall, and studied at the Royal College of Art in London.

At the age of 19 he travelled to India and then around the world. Since then, travel, or more precisely movement, has been at the centre of his work as an artist. He settles in a new environment, shrugs off the weight of his experience, and absorbs the place and its culture. He then explores this fleeting process of cultural absorption once again, several months later in his studio.

His monumental work projects the viewer into a space where areas of colour are juxtaposed and where diverse forms are interwoven. In these twenty-four stained glass windows he plays with this confrontation between colour and form.