Friends of the Ruidosa Church - Community Day 2025

Celebrating the Spirit of Yesterday With the Promise of Tomorrow

The Friends of the Ruidosa Church invite the public to attend Community Day 2025, a celebration of history, culture, and renewal at the historic Ruidosa Church in far west Texas. The event will take place on Saturday, November 1, 2025, from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM, coinciding with Día de los Muertos, a time to honor the past while envisioning the future.

This year’s Community Day centers on the theme: “Celebrating the Spirit of Yesterday With the Promise of Tomorrow.” As part of the celebration, internationally recognized French artist Romain Froquet will unveil his site-specific installation made possible with the support of the Alliance Française de Houston. 

Froquet’s installation responds directly to the land and the chapel, offering what he describes as “a dialogue between the site’s history and its potential metamorphosis, between intimacy and territory.” Drawing on his distinctive language of line, gesture, and light, Gesture: The Sound of Ruidosa seeks to honor what has vanished and highlight what endures.

“Ruidosa is not just a village. It’s a vibration. A threshold,” Froquet reflects in his artist statement.

About the Artist

Born in 1982, Romain Froquet is a self-taught French artist whose practice is rooted in repetition of line and the development of his own pictorial language, inspired by both tribal art and the urban environment. His work spans ink on paper, large-scale murals, canvas, and immersive site-specific installations. Froquet has exhibited widely across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, with recent projects including Connections (2024, Marfa, Texas), Sailing Home, Zhoushan Museum (2024, China), Terra Incognita (2024, Colector Gallery, Monterrey, Mexico), Lignées (2020, Pavillon Carré de Baudouin, Paris), Gesture and Line (2015, Yvonamor Palix Gallery, Houston).

Additional Programming

In conjunction with Community Day, two supporting events will take place in nearby Marfa, Texas:

• A screening of Froquet’s documentary Connections, which chronicles his earlier projects in far West Texas, will take place on Saturday, October 25th at the Crowley Theatre.

• A single-day exhibition curated by Yvonamor Palix at Do Right Hall will be hosted on Wednesday, November 5th, following Community Day.
  

More details on these programs will be announced soon.

What to Expect

Art & Culture: Experience a new site-specific installation by internationally recognized French artist Romain Froquet, whose work bridges gesture, landscape, and memory.

Traditional Performance: Enjoy a moving performance by the Matachines dancers, honoring deep-rooted regional traditions.

Food & Fellowship: Savor local food and refreshments while connecting with friends and neighbors under the desert sky.

Community Spirit: Learn about the ongoing restoration of the Ruidosa Church and how you can be part of preserving its story for generations to come.