What happened to the fountain sculpture that stood in the vast courtyard garden, known as the “Garden Square”, of the former headquarters of Polytechnique, rue Descartes, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris? As we could see through the gates, the old (modern) French garden resembles a no-man's land of earth, without the slightest sculpture. The pool in which it was installed has also disappeared.
However, it is there that stood At Spiralea public commission awarded while Jack Lang was Minister of Culture to a major artist, the Swiss Meret Oppenheim. This muse of Man Ray was a great figure of surrealism, her work is currently in the spotlight in the exhibition on this movement at the Center Pompidou. The work was inaugurated in 1986, a few months after his death. It is even the only piece by this artist in public space in France…
Farideh Cadot, whose Parisian gallery was the client of the work at the time, is today worried about the fate of this 4 meter high bronze sculpture. Has this become just a small detail within the vast renovation project of the place, which houses the Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR) since the move of Polytechnique to the Saclay plateau, in Palaiseau, in the southern Parisian suburbs? This work has long sparked controversy due to its scale and the involvement of LVMH. Among the many detractors of the project is the mining engineer and polytechnician Alexandre Moatti, author of the book Technocratism, big bodies adrift. He criticizes “ a 1.5 million euro renovation project that has become a pharaonic project costing more than 30 million euros since LVMH took the reins of project management “. Some have questioned the relevance of digging a state-of-the-Art 500-seat auditorium intended in particular to host the symposiums and conferences of the Polytechnic school when other already existing structures could have been used in this same Latin quarter which embodies the excellence of higher education and the French Grandes Écoles… Still, this ambitious project seems to be symbolically close to the heart of the boss of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, a former student of the X…
The “Square Garden” of the Polytechnic school, at the end of November, where we notice the absence of the sculpture of Meret Oppenheim and the pool. Photo A.C.
It is to make way for this major project that At Spiralefiled with the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, has been dismantled with the greatest discretion. “ Was the operation carried out with the approval of the Cnap, or on the sly? », asks Farideh Cadot, the National Center for Plastic Arts (Cnap) being the de facto owner of the work. What also about the rights holders? And to remind: “ The sculpture belongs to the State, it can in principle only be removed if it is damaged or broken. “. It is difficult to know if, inadvertently, overzealous workers damaged the work, or if it was removed as a precaution.
« The movement of the work takes place in the context of the creation of the auditorium supported by LVMH. It was not initially planned that LVMH would be responsible for this work of art. It was necessary to find space to install the site base for the work », explains Béatrice Salmon, director of Cnap. And to ensure “ find out where the sculpture is now, with a restorer known to the Cnap. It never functioned very well as a fountain, a point which could be improved with the reconstruction of the basin. A restorer carried out a study on the removal of the work and thought about the fountain. Furthermore, we would not have accepted that it remained on site with the risks of the construction site. ».
Meret Oppenheim's sculpture in the Jardin Carré basin, Polytechnic school, before the works campaign. Photo courtesy Farideh Cadot
Asked by The Art NewspaperPolytechnique and LVMH jointly responded to us that “ this sculpture was removed from the pool by a specialized company mandated by the cultural direction of MESRI under the direction of Antoine Amarger, the restorer of the work. All these operations and the restoration of the work are paid for by LVMH “. Still according to them, the sculpture by Meret Oppenheim is currently “ in the workshop of this restorer, in Saint-Epain in Indre et Loire ».
The Polytechnic school and LVMH have told us that the work will be put back in place at the end of the work, which has been stopped for almost two years, after demonstrations by opponents. According to an architect's plan visible online on the Polytechnique website, the auditorium will take place under the main building, but an annex part seems to extend under the large courtyard in which the pool and the sculpture-fountain were located. Still according to these same documents, the sculpture should be reinstalled in an enlarged pool.
Three Landscapes (1986) by Giuseppe Penone, visible at the MESR during the Heritage Days. © MESR / XR Picture
Calm reigns a stone's throw away, in the small garden located on the right in the main courtyard of the MESRI, in front of the neighboring building. There is no construction site in sight here. As several sources have confirmed to us, the work of Giuseppe Penone called Three Landscapescomposed of three figures with bodies imitating tree branches, is still there, and is not affected by the problems that have befallen the neighboring work of Meret Oppenheim. “ Today, I have no idea when this work will be done, but this project does not depend on Cnap. We are in a waiting situation, without real visibility “, Béatrice Salmon told us. For their part, Polytechnique and LVMH tell us that the construction site is resuming “ from now on for the completion of the archaeological excavations, and in the summer of 2025 for the actual work ».
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