As soon as installed, as soon as unhooked. In Le Havre, a controversy around a statue installed as part of “A Summer in Le Havre” erupted on social networks, so much so that the work was taken down yesterday (Thursday).
The principle of the festival “A Summer in Le Havre” is to install works of art in the four corners of the city. The controversial statue was attached to a building on rue de Bretagne, Saint-François district. It represents a man in shirt and pants, head down. His head seems wrapped in a plastic bag.
A statue deemed “creepy”
Several neighbors have therefore called the police in recent days, believing they see a man throwing himself into the void.. It is actually one of six sculptures from the work “Embed Bodies” by American street artist Mark Jenkins. These six sculptures are scattered around the city and the public was supposed to play to discover them. There is one, a skateboarder, perched at the top of the Volcano, the Le Havre performance hall. Some passers-by thought it was a real skateboarder.
The sculpture of rue de Bretagne is not really to the taste of some residents. Passersby or customers of nearby restaurants said they were shocked. Several of them asked that the work be removed, posting it on social networksspeaking of a statue “creepy”.
–
A work different from the validated project
The statue was therefore removed this Wednesday, June 22 at the end of the day. According to the explanations transmitted by the artistic direction of “A Summer in Le Havre”, the final result does not correspond to what had been validated upstream. The statue was initially not to be fixed upside down.
Another location should be assigned to him but for the moment, no certainty.
There are now 5 sculptures left, their locations will be communicated via social networks to avoid other unpleasant surprises for the inhabitants and above all to avoid unnecessarily calling on firefighters and police.
– Olivia Cohen