Description
To celebrate the 8th Bien Urbain edition and the 10 years of the Vauban fortifications inscription at the unesco World Heritage, the plastic artis Olivier Grossetête proposed to Besançon inhabitants to participate to the construction of a monumental cardboard structure of old Battant bridge triumphal arch (1691-1776) !
From the beginning to the end of the realisation, the realisation is participative. It began with 5 days working in the Besançon artistic brownfield large hall. Guided by the artist team voulnteers of all ages cuted, formed and taped 1200 cardboards ! The triumphal arch has been erected on the saturday 7th of july “place de la Révolution”. The construction brought together hundreds of people, volunters or curious passerby, working 8 hours long to put togeter cardboards boxes and erect the monument floor by floor.
The day after, the public was invited to destroy and trample on the early construction. Naturally ephemeral, the demolition was as joyful and festive as its contruction.
Action
Bien Urbain 8
1 month: From 8th june to 8th july 2018
Site: Hôp Hop Hop (Besançon)
Associate artist: Brad Downey (US)
16 guest artists : Christian Eisenberger (AUT), Julien Fargetton (FR), John Fekner (US), Somaticae (FR), Olivier Grossetête (FR), Deana Kolenčiková (CZ), Cie La Méandre (FR), Jérôme Fino (FR), Igor Ponosov (RU), Yevgen Samborsky (UKR), Santiago Sierra (MX), Helmut Smits (NL), Brad Troemel (US), Vladimir Turner (CZ), Jazoo Yang (KOR), Brad Downey (US)
Biography
Born in 1973, Olivier Grossetête now lives in Marseille and travels around the world with his team to carry out his Participatory Monumental Constructions in Cardboard.
In a moment of sharing and conviviality, Olivier Grossetête offers passers-by a new look at the world around us, while keeping a child’s soul necessary both for the construction and the demolition of his gigantic works. Its participative constructions are a perfect example of the capacities that we can implement with a common objective. The expression “raising mountains” can thus be applied to participants who assemble tens of meters of cardboard together! This allows us to create a collective work that is tinkered with joy that is measured on the scale of our urban environments: a poetic experience close to play, almost utopian, which brings together young and old, from all origins.
Photo credits
Élisa Murcia-Artengo