Bik Van der Pol — Public Sculpture [sous les pavés, la plage]
Public Sculpture (sous les pavés, la plage)
X Biennale de Lyon 2009
The Grand Parc at the northeast of Lyon gives space to tourism, nature, and sports. The lake is a result of economic exploitation of the soil, used as building material for several urban building projects of Lyon. Next to that, the lake prevents Lyon from flooding. Lyon is also the city of the and Louis Lumière Lumiére brothers. They are credited as the inventors of cinema as a mass medium, and probably the first ones who enlightened the everyday: their early films show unspectacular scenes showing everyday activities as moving images. Often these images were shot in Lyon. They also sent their cameramen on tour with the cinematograph to film the street life in Japan, Algiers, Venice, Egypt, and other places thus producing early touristic images. From that moment, people were able to see other cultures, ways of living and form an understanding of these other lives and places. Public Sculpture -sous les pavés, la plage consists of a platform floating in the water near Fontanil beach. This platform reminds of other platforms, of othergatherings of people, of mass demonstrations, uprisings and imagery of the revolution. The street then is the stage, with fighting parties, flags, states of euphoria also an imagery echoing past and recent scenes of France. The banner with Bernard Cousin's well known quote from May '68: 'sous les pavés, la plage', once more connects past to the present and the future as well. The platform -image of representation- presents itself as film at the site of the biennale, in a setting where the public performs, visible as public watching.
