Impossible to miss them. For the past three weeks, around twenty characters have taken over the very busy rue d’Orléans, a pedestrian thoroughfare in the heart of Nantes. Each on their marble base, these statues placed one behind the other but not all at the same height undoubtedly form the most spectacular work of the new edition of Voyage à Nantes. It must be said that the set, 14 meters long and dazzling white, does not leave anyone indifferent. “It’s pretty, original, but quite confusing, confides a woman, visiting with her daughter. In fact, we are a little lost on the historical level! »
Composed of 19 statues, the work “European Thousand Arms Classical Sculpture” by the Chinese artist Xu Zhen indeed blurs the tracks. In particular by putting side by side and almost on the same plane figures that have a priori nothing to do with each other. “These are copies of Western sculptures ranging from the 4th BC to the 20th century,” says Marie Dupas, head of artistic programming at Voyage à Nantes. All of them here measure around 2m50, whereas their original dimensions can actually vary from 20cm to 10m! The artist forgets the original bronze, ivory or stone for reinforced concrete covered with fiberglass and marble powder”.
Athena, the Statue of Liberty or Christ are among the figures most easily recognized by passers-by. Others, some of which are duplicated, a little less: “There is Ulysses, Hercules, but also, with his laurel on his head, the Apollo from the roof of the Opéra Garnier, or even the satyr Marsyas”, details to a group of curious a mediator of the VAN. On site, tourists stop for long seconds in front of each face. And the questions fly. “Is it plaster? ” (No) ; “Has the work been broken? (no, the sculptures are faithful to the originals); “Can we touch? (either, although many try without asking).
An oriental goddess appears
But it is the twentieth silhouette, visible only from a single point of view, which makes this work even more special. It is necessary to face well, as the passers-by do in turn taking out their cell phones, to see the oriental goddess Guaniyn appear and her thousand arms, with dancing movements.
“The work challenges traditional ideas of cultural separation, suggesting that all of humanity is engaged in an absurd party,” explains Voyage à Nantes. “It’s as if the statues were taking part in the big parade that people who cross paths form here, without knowing each other,” says Valérie, a 42-year-old from Nantes. They don’t have much to do with each other, but in the end it works. »
Two other examples of “European Thousand-Arms Classical Sculpture”, one in the United States and the other in Australia, are visible in the world. After the summer and the end of the VAN, we don’t know yet what will happen of this one, which seems (despite an act of vandalism already listed) to have found its place in the middle of this artery, formerly called rue du Peuple.