Code name : “The World letter”. Size: 580 meters long, soon to be 600. All summer long in Nantes, it is possible to declare your love to loved ones, humanity and even to the universe thanks to the “largest love letter in the world” . To do this, just go on Wednesday afternoons to the Wedge 2 creators, on the island of Nantes, where a huge parchment and a few pens await you. “Some put little words, others drawings, there are also quotations, we explain at the reception of the art gallery. There is no rule in fact, except to convey a warm and positive message. »
This is the goal of the Franco-Iranian artist Cocovan, who hides behind this funny project, launched in 2017, by the greatest chance. For all these years, the young woman has traveled the world with her endless sheet, on which more than 25,000 people who have crossed her path have already written their message. She crossed some 145 countries, and the next stop, after France, should be Ukraine in September.
One person from each country
On the project’s website, Cocovan says that she once sat in a Berlin street, behind a desk, to begin this writing experience which was to last only one day. This was without taking into account the “enthusiasm” of passers-by. “A man came up to me and asked if he could also write his love letter to the world. He wrote it in Chinese, his language, right next to mine. A few minutes later, a Turkish man joined us, followed by a German couple, a Russian woman and a Syrian family…” During the Covid, the “World letter” also developed its dematerialized version.
The letter will be complete once at least one person of each nationality has signed it, warns the artist. So he still has about fifty countries to go. Afterwards, the huge scroll should be displayed, while “a digital copy will be sent into space, in orbit around the Earth! »
In the meantime, in Nantes, the messages are piling up. A young woman recaps her pen: “I chose a quote from Bell Hooks which I adore, she confides. She says, “When one chooses to love, one chooses to oppose fear, alienation and separation. To choose to love is to choose to bond.” »