Hélène Bertin, 35, ticks all the boxes. She's a graduate of a renowned Arts school – the Beaux-Arts de Cergy – has had an exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and a residency at Villa Medici, France's prestigious showcase in Rome. Her five-star resume could have taken her to Berlin, New York or Mexico City. Instead, she chose to live and work in Cucuron, her native village in southern France.

It all began with a compelling physical need to rediscover the heady scents of the garrigue, the Luberon's arid landscapes and searing light. "In Paris, I was becoming as grey as the city, I needed spaces where my body would feel good," said the young woman, who is invigorated by her new life.

Bertin is mindful of everything in Cucuron with its population of 2,000; from the vegetables grown by the market gardeners – "the most beautiful sculptures of all" – to the tree festival, a ritual that inspired her to write a children's story. And particularly her acquaintance with the local people, who now permeate her work. For the "Magician of the Earth" exhibition, which runs until April 22 in the Children's Gallery at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the artist invited a girl from her village, 10-year-old Ninon, to join her on the adventure.

However, leaving Paris was not without risk. Gallerists and curators rarely roam the countryside in search of talent. "In 2019, the day I returned the keys to my Paris studio, I had an appointment with the curator Adélaïde Blanc, who later exhibited my work at the Palais de Tokyo," Bertin said.

There's been no down time either for the choreographer Marion Lévy, a former member of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's dance company. In 2021, she settled in Pommerit-le-Vicomte, a small village in Brittany, where she has developed a cutting-edge facility that comprises a dance studio, a set-building workshop and a lecture and concert hall, not to mention a residence for her fellow artists. The entire establishment is called Le Rebond ("The Rebound"), a fitting name for an energetic new direction. "When you're well grounded, the rest of your body moves more fluidly," said the dancer. "I was looking for a solid base, and this is where I found it."

Is the joy of artistic creation now in the countryside? In 2020, the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas predicted it in his exhibition "Countryside, The Future," which was held at the Guggenheim in New York. For once, the urbanist turned his lens to the countryside – which accounts for 98% of the earth's surface – and its recent transformations.

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