I appreciate DIY public space artists like David Mesguich who take action into their own hand and create pieces of art to be displayed in Public space without all the redtape. Street art is something that comes to mind, yet this feels a little bit different. Utilizing sculpture as a medium and working in a geometric aesthetic David Mesguich’s work seems to be more inline with artist’s such as Clemens Behr and so forth who initiate work in public space knowing the work will eventually be destroyed or taken away. The documentation and reporting of the object is usually the only trace left of this type of work. We dont have much information about what happened to the work and as you can see in the pictures it was installed once, repainted then installed again. In the statement below from the artist it has since been abandoned in an industrial area. Although we appreciate the work of art it would have been good to see it left in location to become what it is. Sometimes the most powerful aspect of this type of work is the letting go portion of it. It seems that maybe Mesguich had a hard time letting go, and thus moved the work somewhere it could last longer than a public space. Abandoned insitu installations can be powerful objects in their own right, I have no issue with that as a resting place. I only look for motive in a case like this and think twice when posting a piece from an artist who might be looking for fame more than anything else. I leave it to you to take it for what it is. I hope that I see more work from Mesguich to gauge the intention of his overall work, what I hope I don’t see is another artist using public art then documenting it only for the intention of blogs and publicity. The true power of this work lays in its overall impact in public space and any documentation should be considered after the fact. Time will tell in this case. Impressive work nonetheless.
GF
“This piece symbolizes the passage from one dimension to another, from concrete to mental world. Trying to overcome physical boundaries. It was intentionally put in front of a police station two days then in front of Clichy’s town hall for a week, since the piece has been abandoned in an industrial place in Paris. It took two weeks to made it come to life, it’s only made of polypropylène.”
