The new "Little World of Marcel Pagnol" opened its doors on September 15, 2018 at the Atelier Thérèse Neveu, cour de Clastre in Aubagne.
A bit of History...
In 1974, the crechists and santonniers of Aubagne decided to pay homage to the local child by rehabilitating an old bandstand located on the Esplanade de Gaulle.
A reconstitution of the landscape of the Aubagne hills was created there and 200 santons depicting the life and work of Marcel Pagnol.
In 2018, after 44 years of presence on the esplanade, the museum closes its doors and the santons are transferred to the museum space of the Atelier Thérèse Neveu.
With its 60,000 visitors per year, Marcel Pagnol's Little World is both a heritage institution dear to the heart of the people of Aubagna, and an emblem of the cultural identity of the region, bringing together in one place the art of our master santon-makers and Marcel Pagnol's Provence.
The Museum...
This universe of 200 santons signed by the greatest clay artists in the Pays d'Aubagne and the Etoile, in homage to the literary and cinematographic creation of Marcel Pagnol, becomes a real living and playful museum, through the magic of new technologies.
It has been entirely recreated and staged in the workshop of the great Thérèse Neveu, as the culmination of a journey of history and clay to the top of Old Aubagne.
Sounds, images, lights, reconstructions ... modernity serves tradition to rediscover this exceptional heritage.
The new "Marcel Pagnol's Little World" also hosts the santons created by Daniel Scaturro, Meilleur Ouvrier de France, a diorama depicting Pagnol's universe as a final painting.
This is where "La belle santonière", Louis Sicard's sister, Thérèse Neveu, lived and worked.
At the beginning of the tour, to pay homage to this great lady of the santonnier art that is Thérèse Neveu (1866-1946), a historical space is naturally dedicated to the "beautiful santonnière".
She created about a hundred models of santons inspired by the Aubagnais, literature and folklore of Provence.
Marcel Pagnol's small world
4, Cour de Clastres,
13400 Aubagne
Tel: 04 42 71 17 81
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