Discover the installation Lux Continua created by the artist Olivier Darné in the crypt of Saint-Denis Basilica.
This artwork is the result of Olivier Darné’s residency in the Saint-Denis Basilica in 2021 and 2022.
The artist reproduced forgotten gestures and knowledge that he exhumed from books and engravings about wax craftsmen of the 18th century. Olivier Darné has created two installations in wood and metal using ancestral gestures, creating genuine "machines of light", tributes to l’Art du Cirier by the French physician, botanist and agronomist Duhamel du Monceau (1700-1782), member of the Royal Academy of Sciences. These two machines, "la Dionysienne" and "le Mètre-Lumière", are used to produce candles from a wax collected in Saint-Denis.
The artist and beekeeper Olivier Darné is the creator of the collective Le parti poétique installed in an urban farm of Saint-Denis.
The Lux Continua exhibition opened on March 31, 2022 with an evening of visual and sound performances.
As part of the European Crafts Days, visitors can see the light machines exceptionally put into operation and in candle production from April 1 to 3. More information on the visits of the basilica for the JEMA.
Discover also in the basilica the exhibition on the symbolism and uses of light in churches through the ages, which was created from the book Fiat Lux by Catherine Vincent, Cerf edition.
The Lux Continua event is proposed by the Centre des monuments nationaux, the artistic collective Parti Poétique and the association Suivez la flèche.
tel : 01 49 21 14 87 
Getting there
Tarif de base - Adulte plein tarif : 9.5 €
