Lyon, Caluire-et-Cuire, Fontaines-sur-Saône, Rochetaillée-sur-Saône
Organized by Grand Lyon
www.lesrivesdesaone.com
www.grandlyon.org
Part of an ambitious project to rehabilitate the Rives de Saône, the artistic program River Movie intimately mixed heritage, urban planning and contemporary art with a landscaped route punctuated by 21 new works by 12 international artists: Elmgreen & Dragset, Didier Faustino, Meschac Gaba, Tadashi Kawamata, Lang/Baumann, Le Gentil Garçon, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Pablo Reinoso, Erik Samakh and Pascale Marthine Tayou.
Imagined by the Grand Lyon, it was produced under the artistic direction of Jérôme Sans, curator recognized internationally, with the help of Arter for the execution. This project shows a willingness to rethink public art across the area. Art will be placed in the landscape among historical, climatic, geographical, social and human dimensions along the banks of the Saône. River Movie is part of the area’s history with contemporary design, whether it’s long tradition of works in the public space, institutions such as the “Musée d’art contemporain,” the Opera or various Biennials.
River Movie takes place over approximately 15 km from the first phase of the project in Confluence neighborhoods to Rochetaillée sur Saône (i.e. 14 towns and five districts). It invites us to travel across time; as well as natural and urban sites. Artists, urban planners, landscape architects and contractors worked together, taking possession of locks, low-ports, bridges and boardwalks to reinvent them. Designed from the beginning as a film, the autonomous works of River Movie develop a global scenario. Throughout this open story, the walker invents his own adventure, and is immersed into the landscape much like a movie. “In an endless traveling between water, city and sky, each project is an invitation to look and move differently. It implies like a new lighthouse to offer unseen view points of Lyon and its banks as close as possible to the river as well as above the trees,” said Jérôme Sans.
The entire public art program is connected by a common theme represented by the works of the artist Tadashi Kawamata, whose production in wood punctuate the route and draw a frame. Balcony, belvedere, shed, boards, ramp, terrace invite walkers into a new relationship with their environment, renewing their image of the sites.
From Pascale Marthine Tayou’s African masks lining the walk to universal games designed by Meschac Gaba or the immaculate whiteness of the sculpture of Elmgreen & Dragset raised in front of the courthouse, all works build a visual story with surprises and changing atmospheres. From Erik Samakh’s poetic lightning bugs ornated by Jean Michel Othoniel’s pearls to Pablo Reinoso’s voluptuous sculpted-bench, it reminds us the ropes of boats moored on the Saone which re-enchanters the banks and invite us into this fairyland. Many observatories create a transition between the bucolic and urban area of the Saône which modeled Lang / Baumann’s unusual staircase rising so unlikely between water and sky, and the boards reflecting the landscape designed by Didier Faustino.
Grand Lyon writes a new chapter of its story, which revives here in a contemporary way the rivers’ edge is now a place of artistic inspiration, discovery and popular experiences.
Inaugurated in early September, this first phase of implementation will be followed by other filmed sequences between the Saône and the Rhône, in changing neighborhoods that will continue to give a new face to Lyon in the early 21st century.
Rives de Saône – River Movie
Lyon, Caluire-et-Cuire, Fontaines-sur-Saône, Rochetaillée-sur-Saône;
With the works of Elmgreen & Dragset, Didier Faustino, Meschac Gaba, Tadashi, Kawamata, Lang/Baumann, Le Gentil Garçon, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Pablo Reinoso, Erik Samakh, and Pascale Marthine Tayou
Project owner: Grand Lyon
Art direction: Jérôme Sans
Production: Arter
www.lesrivesdesaone.com
Contact: Céline Migliore, cmigliore [at] grandlyon.org