ThoseArtistic intervention in Geneva
In the woods of Saint-Jean, an illegal dragon may end in rings
A local artist sculpted a 4 -meter creature in a dead beech, without authorization. The city defends the preservation of this nature area.
The dragon and the snake were sculpted in the strain of a dead beech at the start of the year. The work extends over almost four meters and weighs several tonnes.
Magali Girardin
- A local artist sculpted a dragon and a four -meter snake without official authorization.
- The city of Geneva requires the withdrawal of sculptures before October 31.
- The works required four months of daily work from dawn.
- The municipality refuses to transform this forest area into an artistic space.
A yellow eye sparkles between the leaves. The jogger who sweats on the gravel climb it at the last moment: a 4-meter long dragon is extended in the middle of the Nant-Cayla forest, not far from the school of the same name in the Saint-Jean district. He fights – or hugged, it is according to – an equally gigantic snake. These two creatures were born from the hands of a local artist, Jacques Baume, shaped in the strain of a dead oak.
Impressive, the work has been sits since spring in a slope overlooking the path. But her days are counted: it was carried out without authorization in a wooded area belonging to the city and must disappear by October 31. Dragon and snake will probably be debited with the chainsaw. The artist launched a petition two days ago and already collected seventy signatures to save her.
Four months of work from dawn
Jacques Baume, now retired, learned the basics of sculpture in India, where he spent six months at the age of 28 years. He has never done his job; He became a upholsterer, then computer teacher when the lack of mandates forced his retraining. But art has always occupied an important place in its life, through a gouge or a chisel, with a ballpoint pen or a brush – its portraits are striking. So much for his, portrait, just dusted. The main thing is without details – it will suit him.
Before crossing it in the woods, we could see it on steps leading to the Rhône, sculpting a room of marble, then working on a piece of acacias On the outskirts of the Geneva Industrial Services pumping station in the middle of COVID. This great reader of Indian sutras and author of Japanese haikus begins to work in the woods of the Nant-Cayla at the end of 2024, by transforming a strain of beech into a woman’s bust.
The sculptor did not require prior authorization. In any case, the city would have refused it: this wooded area is not intended to become an artistic space, it must remain a refuge for biodiversity.
Magali Girardin
Then, in January, the artist initiated the moult of the Dragon oak trunk, with gouge and scissors. From dawn to twilight. “A physical and spiritual asceticism!” Each morning, the sculptor rolls on the path his shopping cart filled with tools and a thermos. Coffee serves him as fuel and he readily shares it. “This is also what feeds me: contact with walkers. People stopped and I offered them a cup, we chatted. ” Four months later, the trunk became a creature 4 meters long and several tonnes.
Policy of the fait accompli and denaturation of the site
But exchanges with some “rare” onlookers are not always friendly and Jacques Baume questions the legality of his business. In May, he wrote at the service of the green spaces of the City of Geneva To submit a “request for regularization”. The answer reaches him in mid-August. “Outside all official considerations and procedural defects, we want to salute the quality and beauty of the works of art,” says e-mail. However, in accordance with the principles of managing the city’s forest spaces, no sculpture or artistic installation is authorized in the forests. ”
Consequently, the artist must evacuate existing sculptures (Dragon-Serpent and Bust). Due to the impossibility of accessing the site with a motorized vehicle, these must be debited on site so as not to deteriorate the places, in particular the tree heritage and the floors. A collaborator of the Environment Department can help him in this operation, still stipulates the city.
The sculpture sits at the top of an embankment (on the left of the image), above the path.
Magali Girardin
Anna Vaucher, personal collaborator of administrative advisor Alfonso Gomez, in charge of Environmental departmentdetails the reasons for this decision. “We cannot endorse the policy of the fait accompli. It is a private land and we do not provide authorization for such artistic interventions because we have no desires to transform this wooded environment into an artistic zone. ” Our will, she continues, rather consists in returning nature to nature, “especially since this perimeter is already strongly put under pressure by the attendance of walkers and bathers”.
Regarding the strains used, the collaborator recalls the great usefulness of dead wood in the ecosystem, which serves in particular as a habitat for wildlife. “This kind of intervention, all artistic as it is, causes this essential function to lose.” The city is not opposed to the “land art”, “but in areas that lend themselves to it. And any work would be the subject of a competition beforehand ”.
To this is added that these works, in particular the very busty bust, can also disturb and hinder and that their place in a walk space is discussed.
“Give these dead wood a second life”
Jacques Baume says to respect “that not all of them share the same artistic sensitivity” and says they recognize his error: “I have not requested prior authorization not by challenge, but out of ignorance and by naivety.”
The retiree will remind his tools for a time. “The turn that this story took affects me. I understand that there are rules but I also believe that there are moments when law can agree with humans, emotion and culture. These sculptures were born from a sincere desire: to give a second life to these dead woods, to awaken looks, to offer a little poetry and wonder to those who walk the forest. ”
The second sculpture, much more modest, is located along the way.
Magali Girardin
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