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Ambérieu-en-Bugey
Ain Rhône-Alpes Rue Henri Jacquinod / Avenue de Verdun |
Génération, Hommage à Saint-ExupéryGeneration, Tribute to Saint-Exupery |
Maxime Descombin
1969 |
Two stainless steel flash elements, connected perpendicularly, mounted on a pivot to obtain a natural movement, without motor. The 'flash' is composed of two triangles connected at the base, side by side, at opposite points, with a circular cut in the center.
Generation, a project for a monumental stainless steel sculpture dedicated to the memory of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is the culmination of a long process as evidenced by numerous studies with scales and different materials. The deliberate use of a well-defined geometrical form - composed of two very elongated triangles, united on their small side - already appears in a polychrome Totem (1948-49), in certain compositions with geometric characters or in an abstract high relief, made of reinforced concrete for the House of National Education in Mâcon (1950). This form erected on an axis is movable and arranged with a second identical element that cuts the space orthogonally. The dynamism, inherent in the obliques thus determined, is multiplied by the dynamism due to the movement produced by the intervention of the spectator. The first version, scaled down, for the Salon de Mai, was made of painted gray wood, but the realization, already planned in stainless steel, clearly showed an outdoor destination. For several years, the reworking of this identifiable form, determining a series, corresponds to the specific approach of Maxime Descombin (Excerpt from the study conducted by Marie Lapalus, in 1983, commissioned by Serge Lemoine as part of the University of Dijon, unpublished, and translated into English).