In 2021, Case Maclaim placed a monumental printed image on the keep of Château de Belcastel in southern France. Titled “Our Insides Showing” by the château, the portrait brought a contemporary image onto an 11th-century fortress: a giant eye visible from the village below.
The work was made for LEGEND, an exhibition that brought seven street artists to the château. Rather than painting directly onto the keep, Case used a printed image mounted on its exterior. That distinction matters here. The portrait occupied the castle’s most conspicuous architectural feature while leaving the restored stone as its backdrop.
The château connected the eye to the keep’s original purpose as a lookout over the surrounding landscape. In its account of the work, it also raised a more contemporary question about cameras and surveillance. The comparison belongs to the exhibition’s interpretation; the immediate visual proposition was simpler and harder to miss—a watchful eye where the castle itself once provided a vantage point for watching.
Case described the decision to put such a large printed picture on the tower during the COVID period with dry humour, and thanked Chris and Heidi for making it happen. The château identifies the exhibition’s curators as Christopher Courtney and Heidi Leigh. Case also made a separate work for the upper garden, but it was the portrait on the keep that addressed the village beyond the castle walls.
Belcastel’s setting gives that placement a particular weight. Architect Fernand Pouillon bought the ruined château in 1974 and spent eight years restoring it, rebuilding parts of the fortress while retaining elements of its long history. Case’s temporary image belonged to another chapter in the building’s life: for a time in 2021, the keep looked back across Belcastel.
Images via @case_maclaim on Instagram.