The Unicorn Cabinet by Yona Friedman

Set in the humanist environment of the château of Claude Gouffier (1500-1570), Grand Ecuyer to King Henry II, The Unicorns by Yona Friedman (1923-2019) is a reminder of the Renaissance man's interest in the legendary animal.

Part of the décor from the artist's Parisian flat has been reinstalled at Oiron to form a "Cabinet of Unicorns", populated by a variety of figures. This opens onto the highest terrace of the château - exceptionally open to visitors - and the immensity of the plain. Here we discover two monumental unicorns, whose designs appear in the landscape. It's as if they've stepped out of the castle and its legends to embrace the wider world. A nod to their counterparts in the 16th-century Paintings Gallery, but also to the contemporary works in the château's Cabinet of Curiosities.

At Château d'Oiron, Yona Friedman, a French architect of Hungarian origin, is in the spotlight with an exhibition entitled "The Cabinet of Unicorns".

Born in Budapest in 1923, he died in Pasadena in 2019 after spending most of his life in Paris.

His work is very well represented in French collections, with 260 works on the inventory of the Centre national des arts plastiques. This exceptional body of work testifies to his visionary passion for the architecture of the future and his constant concern to have the construction of cities designed by their users, according to their desires, their creativity and their fantasies, rather than imposing a standard that is supposed to suit everyone.