Feature Photo: TERRA 2026, installation view at Hôtel de la Mare d’Aluze, Beaune, Burgundy, France. Photography by James Retrief. Courtesy of TERRA
Burgundy’s vineyards have long given travelers a reason to seek out its villages and historic estates. TERRA brings contemporary art into that itinerary. A cultural initiative connecting art with the region’s wine heritage, it presents an annual exhibition across historic properties amid Burgundy’s UNESCO-recognised vineyards. Local and international artists share the programme, with works chosen or commissioned in response to the buildings where they appear.
Now in its fourth edition, TERRA opens doors across Beaune, Pommard and Vougeot, including several rarely accessible to the public. Presented by Apsara Studio and Hautes Côtes, it is led by co-founders Jenn Ellis, its artistic director, and Milena Berman, its executive director. Their approach gives the architecture an active role: a former winemaker’s house hosts works exploring material transformation, while a medieval defensive tower becomes a setting for installations concerned with sound and physical perception.
The fourth edition opened with the inaugural TERRA Forum at the Hôtel-Dieu des Hospices Civils de Beaune, introducing the themes of ecology, ritual and mapping that run throughout the exhibition. More than 500 visitors attended the opening weekend, with artists and collectors joining gallerists, curators and institutional representatives. Guests included representatives from the Watermill Center in New York and MAC Lyon, alongside visitors from across Europe, the United States, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and China.
For wine lovers, the idea behind the exhibition is an approachable one. How land is cultivated and how its history influences what is made there are familiar questions in Burgundy. TERRA gives artists room to explore them through their own materials and practices. Several Beaune sites are connected by a walking route, with FICOFI Maison also among this year’s exhibition venues.
Art Beyond the Cellar
At La Maison de Pommard, the connection to wine is especially direct. The house once belonged to the de Montille winemaking family, and its old cellars were used for aging wines. Isabelle de Montille later worked with architect Emanuele Salini over seven years to reinvent the long-uninhabited property. It now hosts Material Making, a section examining how substances combine and change, with a large painting by Jongsuk Yoon and a new collaborative painting and sculpture by Lucia Pizzani and Jaime Gili among its works. In a house where wine once developed slowly in the cellar, transformation is a fitting subject.
La Folie de Vougeot offers a different prospect. Set within the Clos de Vougeot vineyards, the late nineteenth-century Art Nouveau residence has floor mosaics, oak details and a distinctive tower overlooking the vines. A sculptural installation by Lee Ufan, one of the leading artists associated with the Mono-ha movement, gives visitors another reason to seek out this remarkable vineyard address.
Inside Beaune’s Historic Buildings
Back in Beaune, Dawn Ng has created a commission for the Hospices. Founded in 1443 as a charitable hospital, the institution is familiar to wine lovers through its annual auction and to visitors through its patterned glazed-tile roofs. Ng’s practice investigates time, bringing her work into a building with almost six centuries of history. The commission was conceived specifically in response to the site.
At La Tour Renard, visitors are invited to take off their shoes. Only 15 people at a time can enter the tower, built between 1465 and 1477 as part of Beaune’s fortifications. Inside, Synchronicity brings together Su-Mei Tse, Matt McClune and Yoona Hur with a historical work by Kim Lim. Hur’s installation invites interaction, while the wider display considers sound and physical perception. The bare feet are part of the experience, directing attention to contact with the ground in a structure originally built for defence.
The eighteenth-century Hôtel de la Mare d’Aluze has its own artistic history. Distinguished by its staircase and wrought-iron work, it once housed Beaune’s applied and fine arts schools. For TERRA, it hosts The Everyday, with a new painting by Jess Cochrane and new works responding to the site by Jin Han. Consumption and reuse are the concerns here, giving familiar objects and materials closer attention.
Across La Maison du Collège and Domaine Chanson, Ground to Sky takes up soil, cultivation and the boundaries people draw across land. Works include a large photograph by Atong Atem, a series by Wayilkpa Maymuru, and sculptures and a new painting by Pizzani.
Participating Artists
Morgane Baroghel-Crucq; Raffael Bader; Joël Andrianomearisoa; Atong Atem; Desia Ava; Anna Blom; Shaan Bevan; Kaanchi Chopra; Jess Cochrane; Kirsten Coelho; Elodie Elsenberger; Carina Florianne; Jaime Gili; Molly Grad; Daniel Greenfield-Campoverde; Charlotte Winifred Guérard; Jin Han; Yoona Hur; Sara Jensen; Bo Kim; Kim Lim; Alice Magne; Alastair and Fleur Mackie; Wayilkpa Maymuru; Matt McClune; Alex Mills; Marie-Luce Nadal; Dawn Ng; Emma Picard; Bundith Phunsombatlert; Lucia Pizzani; Dimitris Tampakis; Su-Mei Tse; Tomoyuki Ueno; Cassie Vaughan; Clémence Vazard; Jongsuk Yoon; Stanislav Zábrodský; and Lee Ufan.
Participating Galleries
Marian Goodman Gallery, Almine Rech, Enari Gallery, Victoria Law Projects, Pace Gallery, Mandy Zhang Art, Silica, Sullivan+Strumpf and Palmer Gallery.
Jury
The 2026 programme includes an international jury of museum leaders, independent curators and arts patrons. Its full membership is available on TERRA’s website.
Visiting TERRA
TERRA runs through November 15, 2026, across sites in Beaune, Pommard and Vougeot. The walking route makes Beaune a practical starting point, with Pommard and Vougeot extending the itinerary into the surrounding wine villages. Visiting times are released periodically, and appointments can also be arranged. For details, visit terraexhibition.com or contact info@terraexhibition.com.
