This line 5 of the tram, she will have seen all the colors. In 2013, Jean-Pierre Moure (PS), then president of the Montpellier conurbation (Hérault), entrusted the street artist Miss.Tic the care of dressing the oars. Six years later, his successor, Philippe Saurel (various left), changed course, announcing the opening of a competition, open to all, to draw the outlines of line 5. This Friday, finally, after ten years of trial and error, Michaël Delafosse (PS), the mayor and president of the metropolis of Montpellier, unveiled what will be the design of this old sea serpent.
Exit the competition open to all, the community has carried out a very traditional call for tenders to designate the person who will imagine the dress for line 5, which will link Clapiers to Lavérune, in 2025. And it is Barthélémy Toguo, star of contemporary art, which was chosen.
Crocodiles, parrots and salamanders
After the swallows of line 1, the flowers of line 2, the seabed of line 3 and the gold of line 4, the Cameroonian artist designed a tramway in the colors of nature. The work he imagined for line 5 shows plants, parrots, crocodiles, fish, salamanders and human faces, connected by vines.
It was while discovering the route that the future line 5 will take that Barthélémy Toguo had the idea for this leafy design. “The tramway must serve three large parks, I immediately thought of nature”, explains the artist, who confides that he “always paid attention to the earth, the wood, the vegetation and agriculture, having lived in the countryside. “Humans, nature, animals… There is a very universal dimension expressed in this work”, he continues. As for green, “a reassuring, invigorating and refreshing color”, a symbol of “freedom, movement, hope and health”, it flowed naturally, for this renowned visual artist. That’s good, there was no green line, so far. “It’s an honor for me to know that the inhabitants of Montpellier will live with this work, on a daily basis”, he notes.
This Friday, when the black curtain on the huge model installed in the Jardin des Plantes fell, heaps of “Wow! rang out. Bet won? “We will leave it up to the inhabitants to be the judges,” smiles Michaël Delafosse (PS). But something tells me that the people of Montpellier are very proud of their tramway, and that they will continue to be. So, what do you think of this line 5 design?
This Saturday (10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.), free activities are organized in the Jardin des Plantes to celebrate the unveiling of line 5. On the program, a treasure hunt, organized by the Kezako company, readings, with the writer Caroline Redon , or guided tours of the site, with the Tela Botanica network of botanists.