Vernissage at the cemetery

Yves Sabourin Independent Curator and Inspector of Artistic Creation Directorate of Artistic Creation – Ministry of Culture and Communication of France, 2017

When contemporary art and high technologies enter into the cemetery.

CAUSSE is an artwork commissioned by an eminent French scientist to Milène Guermont to be his ultimate tracking place on Earth.

Several authorizations were necessary to install this sculpture made of ultra high performance fiber-reinforced concrete and light on the preservation area of the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.

The silhouette of the sculpture evokes the mounts of the Causses – a group of limestone plateaux in south-western France – where the scientist (who is also art collector) is born.

CAUSSE is formed by 12 facets, representing the 12 floors of the photo-electric cell with multiplied electrons invented by the scientist. Thanks to optical fibres embedded into the concrete, light goes from one facet to another, like the electrons in the photo-electric cell. When a cloud, a bird or a visitor passes in front of an optical fibre, it darkens a point of light on another facet.

Perfectly vertical, the longer side of CAUSSE anchors it powerfully in the ground and defines an ascending strength. The obliques of the sculpture come from this mark. The global tension of the lines creates an infinite visual dynamics, a synthesis between nature and abstraction: a movement of elevation to which a spiritual interpretation can be given.

A passage from the Earth to the sky, games with light and triangles, an installation on a conservation area, innovations and exceptional authorizations, CAUSSE bears similarities to the monumental sculpture PHARES imagined at the same moment by Milène Guermont to create a dialogue with the obelisk on the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

Vernissage: November 1st, 2016.

CAUSSE becomes the last home of its commissioner: March 16, 2018.

Tour with the Artist: February 22 at 4pm.

Cimetière du Montparnasse, 4e division, 1ère section, 14e ligne RP 2 et 3 Nord, 3 bd. Edgard Quinet, 75014 Paris.

Presentation & "quick access to the graveyard" here ↗

Press release & photos here ↗

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