It suddenly appears, set between the stones of an old drystone wall, a white bone that comes out of the earth and supports it. We don’t notice it on our journey among the wonders of Château La Coste, yet it is there waiting for us, unaware visitors. When we notice it, we are attracted by it, as if sucked towards a place that we can only contemplate in our imagination, or in the most ancient memories of that hidden part that we carry within us, a gift from our ancestors. We get closer, and after a few steps we find ourselves in its presence.

The entrance. A seemingly simple access opens into the stone of the wall, but we perceive that it has been there since ages immemorial. We peer timidly inside, but the threshold hides its secrets in the darkness. Only a vague earthy and ancient smell manages to escape and reach us, bewitching us, warning us. If we wish to delve into this place, we freely enter via a few steps into a kingdom of murkiness.

The sight does not perceive anything that is not dark. The freshness and the mineral smell become stronger as we try to adapt our eyes to the situation. Beyond we have left the real world, the light, the path and a safe destination, yet we are not lost in this new world, in this cave in the earth, where we are slowly able to perceive forms that tower above us. They are branches, trunks, or perhaps roots of an ancient oak.

They are the roots of a primordial tree, which wrap around this underground refuge, heart of earth, forming a vault that protects us and at the same time worries us. What forces are at stake in this space dug into the ground, what creatures can live in such a burrow? None, we are alone with ourselves and the chthonic energies that surround us.

Oak Room is a safe shelter, it is a direct connection between what was reality and the world below, the one where all things are born, where they begin to form before being born. We are embraced by the strength of many trees that have offered their bodies to support all the weight of the world above us. However, we are not in a dead place, in a tomb, but rather in the primordial home, the home of the first men, the only refuge granted by nature in ancient times. Times when spirits resided in rocks, in trees, in the earth itself.

By immersing ourselves in the coolness and minerality of this cave we are able to reunite with these spirits, with the very essence of nature. The confrontation will inevitably be complex, given that we are accustomed to subjugating nature rather than embracing it. But this should not discourage us, the Earth knows how to forgive, console and grant us another chance. The soil is shaped by the steps of those who preceded us, the texture of the colossal roots seems to be living, thanks to the poor lighting.

As we turn, we will be dazzled by what was once the door to darkness, now open to a realm of light we can barely stand. An otherworldly, mystical light, coming from who knows what empyrean. Once again, we are dragged towards this threshold, with all the uncertainty that comes with it. We leave the locus terribilis and enter a new one.

The dazzling light allows us for a fraction of a second to enjoy the spiritual enlightenment we are seeking, but at the end the world we left previously reappears with its outlined contours. All the experience, wisdom and respect accumulated on this journey can remain hidden in the Oak Room, waiting to unfold to a new explorer of worlds. Meanwhile, in the bowels of the earth, all is silence and darkness, as it always has been.

Project details

Design: Andy Goldsworthy
Project Location: Château La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France
Typology: Environmental art
Built: 2009
Photo credits: © Gaël Glaudel

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy is an English sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist who produces site-specific sculptures and land art situated in natural and urban settings. The materials used in Goldsworthy’s art often include brightly coloured flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, pinecones, snow, stone, twigs, and thorns. Rather than interfering in natural processes, his work magnifies existing ones through deliberately minimal intervention in the landscape.