Terres Est-Ouest

Dauphine Scalbert, back in France after years of practising ceramics abroad (Korea, Japan, Mexico, Colombia...), together with Nicole Crestou, organised the first ceramics exhibition at the Manoir de Lain, where she had set up home. A group of potter-creators were invited:

Jean-Jacques Bailly (who was not a ceramist, but a man whose extreme sensitivity would not let him shy away from artistic expression) ;

Jean-Yves Chevilly, who wrote at the time: "I've always hated waste, and my work as a visual artist is oriented towards Arte Povera;

Brigitte Sabatier, the potter from Thury, long known for her creative work at Château de Ratilly;

Colette Biquand, whose need to write overflows both the paper and the large surfaces of her pots;

and Nicole Crestou, an inexhaustible sculptor and designer.

The five artists, whose exhibition was called "Sculptures dans la Cour Ovale", were accompanied by Isabel García and Otilia Jerez (potters from the Andes in Colombia), and Alain Gauffier (stone sculptor).

This was the first ExpoLain. Over the next few years, the Manoir de Lain was destined to host hundreds of ceramists and thousands of ceramics every summer, in the whole of its architecture: the courtyard, the park, the barn, the house...