Qui sème le vent ?, 2019
Painted metal and PVC
3,90 x 4,40 x 3,90 m
Commande de Paris la Défense - Les Extatiques 2019
Praz-Delavallade, Paris, Los Angeles
Pierre Ardouvin was born in 1955 in Crest, France. Since the 1990s he has cultivated
an ongoing examination of the utopian vernacular of popular culture, and the
fate of its ritual consumption by commercial industries and integration within
identities and class struggles. He presents a work in the form of an interrogation;
a large sign with metal lettering questioning passers-by: “Qui sème le vent?” [Who
sows the wind?] The letters are animated by small, silvery origami folds, glimmering
in the ever-present wind of the large alleys that border the Tuileries. The windmill
thus becomes an object of enchantment and childhood reminiscence, referring
to our own fragility and to these troubled times. Who reaps the whirlwind?
Photo: Marc Domage