An experiment in Monumenta – art at the Grand Palais in Paris, France

Here is an amazing piece of art from the website designboom.

Each year the French Ministry of Culture and Communication invites a leading artist to create a work that responds to the exceptional architectural space of the Grand Palais in Paris.

The sheer monumental scale of the building provided the inspiration for a big idea: monumenta.

This year, Indian-born, British-based artist Anish Kapoor created a temporary, site-specific installation inside the nave of the glass-domed hall.

The space was originally unveiled at the 1900 universal exhibition.

For its fourth edition Kapoor was asked to meet the challenge with a brand new work for the 13,500 sq meter space.

“The sculpture is a total immersion in an unexplored physical and mental dimension. Once you are inside, in the giant 4-armed balloon, the involuted form reminds you of an organic outer space and inner self at the same time — but when you travel outside of it (once you are back in the space of the grand palais).”

“I hope the viewer has another encounter with the piece and with the luminosity thrown down by the glass roof.”

“Visitors to the grand palais will first use a revolving door to enter inside ‘the belly of the beast’….bathed in red light, which the artist says he hopes has a cathedral-like quality.”

Find more photos and details at designboom.

 
Interesting that over here in Los Angeles a piece of art was created also focusing gigantic sizes. See the article on Levitated Mass for more details.