Decoration of support poles with trees made from concrete
Designed as a gateway between the north and the south of town, architect Rudy Ricciotti offers a new belvedere at the Gare de Nantes through the construction of an enormous mezzanine above the train tracks. In this new layout, in the middle of future travelers and boutiques, concrete trees conceal the supports that come from the ground, which make up the framework of the building. Together, they evoke a canopy, extending the botanical garden located next to the station.
In this new installation, commissioned by AAB, my work has been to execute the sculpting of the concrete trees. Working on a team, in which everyone has their role, we had to cover the eighteen supports with a coat of pristine white bark, in order to give birth to this “urban forest”.
Not long ago, I was interviewed at the Gare de Nantes by a local journalist. The journalist asked me how to best describe my contribution to the concrete tree sculpture; as an artist or an artisan? Normally, this type of question would have left me speechless, had I not thankfully prepared a very polite, very vague answer:
“we are a bit of both”