Picasso in Vallauris

Picasso in Vallauris was made in 2021 as a commission for the exhibition “Picasso Shared and Divided” at Museum Ludwig in Cologne. However, Nestler had already wanted to make this film since 1972, when he visited Picasso's Temple of Peace in Vallauris while returning from a film shoot. Vallauris is famous for its pottery; Picasso also worked primarily with clay here. Nestler, Komers and Reifarth go through the little town with open eyes and ears, see villas, crafts and migrants, and visit a school where children are painting. It can be felt how this last, long scene traces an arc: back to Aufsätze but also to the question of why someone says nothing and paints, of how this goes together: the Temple of Peace, the pictures of war, the many doves and Picasso's oft-cited statement that painting is not there to decorate houses but an instrument of war for attack and defence against the enemy.