Tobiasse

This old belfry off rue des Ardissons – named after one of the founding families of Le Cannet which came to settle in 1477 – marks the entrance of the district. The construction date of this old bell tower (or "Campanile") of Le Cannet remains unknown (the chapel was not present on the list of Pastoral visits conducted in the middle of the 17th century). It is thought to have lost its original aspect. It bell tolled to mark any important event: the tocsin warned of fires, called to arms and sounded the alarm in the case of any common danger.

Saved from probable ruin, the chapel was restored in 1989. All that remained was to provide it with a purpose worthy of its historical past and spiritual vocation. This was the main preoccupation of Tobiasse, world-famous contemporary artist, who made it a place of Ecumenism and chose the theme "life is a party" to illustrate this rebirth.

In the authenticity of his creative gesture, Théo Tobiasse told with vivacity and poetry a universal tale that would return this place to an atmosphere favourable to contemplation. He speaks of life, cohesive celebration, profound nostalgia, the spirituality of the soul. A tangle of colours structures this monumental composition. It conjures up the warm shades of the earth and the infinite blue of the sky. His triumphant and anxious stroke creates and sculpts powerful lines which unite fullness and breakage.

His calligraphy conjures up Tobiasse's universe. It is used as a poetic image, completing shapes and stimulating reflection. The building is sublimed by a mosaic highlighting its entrance. Inside, the light filtering through the stained glass is an invitation to contemplation. All attention is focused on the choir which radiates from a dove, a symbol of peace. The main axis is underlined by a bench with inverted armrests projecting towards the right and left lateral panels.

The fresco is to be read from right to left. The right-hand panel expresses joy, while the choir is bathed in spirituality, and the left-hand panel speaks of nostalgia. The use of colour ranging from orange-red to blue, via white, defines the material and temporal dimensions as well as the quest for spirituality.

In the middle of the right-hand panel, two monumental hands symbolise meditation. Around them, a united and tightly grouped family tells of the life of a secure world. A cup, symbol of Human destiny is raised as a sign of friendship and sharing. The presence of large women, with generous bodies, is an allegory of nature as a shepherdess watching over a dove nestled and a pastoral universe. The family is heading towards a safe and reassuring village that is encased within a radiating nest evoking the heavens and the earth. A woman begs in the direction of meditation. A jug filled and covered with fruit is placed as offering for abundance and fertility. A couple is dancing. The embraced woman rises up, their communion expresses a kind of fusion into a common aesthetic, emotional, erotic, religious or mystical movement. It is a return to a Single Being in which harmony between the heavens and the earth has been found. A form of transport, musical instruments and abundant vegetation evoke the imaginary and fantasy world of Tobiasse.

The choir: a source of dynamic intensity, it is the point in which the energy is most concentrated and blues are most saturated. It radiates from the inside out. It contains references to the joys of life that are dear to Tobiasse: the dove bearing an olive branch and light is surrounded by two angels. In flight, it carries a message of peace and spirituality in movement. It is positioned on the point of greatest intensity, on a divide, at the very heart of the choir. Its forceful and fragile representation translates the role of Peace: upon which all rests, and of which all depends. A man on the left and a woman on the right flying towards each other are facing the centre of the choir; under the bird flow waves symbolising the flood that purifies and renews. A musical instrument evokes modulations, suggesting a harmony of the soul and the body. Rays are projected and light up two spiritual poles: Jerusalem – to the right – and Saint-Paul de Vence – on the left. The cracks confer a vertical dimension to the choir: a passage, a way between levels of hell, earth and heaven.

The left-hand panel Its shifted centre is a source of light. It is answer to the meditation of the opposite panel. Nostalgia is omnipresent. After expansion: withdrawal, departure and introspection. The choir's dove travels on, and can be found a small "bird of light" amidst the projected rays that shine upon a departing family. Its progress is as dusty as the desert sand. A car wheel recalls the exile experienced by Tobiasse and relates to the world that is emerging, to continuous creation and thus to disintegration. The people are drawing close to a woman welcoming them with open arms. She seems to be guiding them towards transcendence and draws them skywards. At a window above her hand stands Bath-Sheba, wife of David and mother of Solomon. Also present are members of a party that is about to end. The embrace of a couple enjoying its final dance; a woman casually bearing the light: she is refreshed, once more, in an environment filled with baskets of fruits, flowers and leaves. A family accompanied by a winged horse symbolises impulsive desires and fertility. Children of the heavens and of the earth, men celebrate life to the rhythm of knowledge, experience and reflection.