Justin Nott – September 2022
“As an emerging – and independent – Australian artist, the rarest gift
is time and space. Time is so integral to the development of an
artistic practice. The way the world works now, however, means artists
are expected to match the productivity of the greater capitalist
machine in order to stay afloat and, even worse, prove their worth.
This is in total incongruity with the nature of creativity:
imagination, consideration, exploration, experimentation, reflection,
and so on.
What Eloise and the rare treasure of Hôtel Sainte Valière offer is
time and space. Time according to you. Space according to the
stunning, romantic and evocative landscape of the south of France.
The two weeks spent dwelling through the Minervois and the Hôtel were
amongst the greatest of my life. This is no exaggeration. I was
allowed a delicately balanced fortnight of solitude, challenging
conversation, unpressured autonomy, and, of course, the (surely
famous) wonderful cooking by Eloise and her mother, Sophie. I was
allowed to take my time: to observe light and shadow across cobbled
paths or window frames, to read with depth and leisure the stack of
novels I’d since neglected, and to scribble away at a new play that
had been whirring in around my brain for far too long. I was allowed
to just be with my creativity as it was allowed to come.
I somewhat reductively joked over yet another stunning dinner as the
sun set over the cooling vineyards that Eloise should be known as
Penelope Pitstop. I explained that this was for no other reasons than
that her gift of the Hotel was a vital pit stop for artists on the
seemingly endless and dangerous highway of the outside world. If there
is some place else like Hôtel Sainte Valière, I’ve yet to find it. A
rare – and precious – treasure indeed. I miss it every day.”
