I spent last week as a flower child living in harmony with nature, or as some people call it – camping. Obviously not in Paris, but Blaye a lovely little medieval town in SW France, where things are greener and slower.
It was heaven but at the end of a week where the hardest task was listening to birds sing, I thought going back to Paris too abruptly, might kill me. So I spent the day in Bordeaux to ease myself in, like a diver in a decompression chamber.
After wandering around the city, stopping off at churches, ice-cream stands and souvenir shops, I decided to head to the city’s contemporary art gallery but as it was closed I took a chance and followed the Cow Parade which took me to the Musée des Beaux-Arts. I wasn’t especially excited about the inevitable paintings of ships being sunk by sirens and portraits of the ancient nobility of the area, but hey I was on holiday, anything’s worth a go.
As I dozily walked through the gate I was in no way ready for the kaleidoscopic majesty of, Un Crocodile by Guillaume Renou. I could not stop staring at its gigantic psychedelic jaws and shiny white teeth. Why doesn’t every city have one of these instead of some version of a rusty metal mould of Antony Gormley’s body? A sculpture so huge and colours so trippy that you can’t ignore it however hard you try. Everyone I watched looked up at it had an expression of either bliss, awe or fear (well only toddlers for the last one).
The croc was part of a council initiative to give local artists the opportunity to have their work displayed for a short period of time in well-known areas of the city. However, when the time came to take them down the residents of Bordeaux stamped their feet, they couldn’t bear to let this monster get away. Refreshing, as you normally only hear about campaigns for that ‘waste of tax-payer’s money’ to be removed. Instead the people of Bordeaux took it on as their honorary pet, mascot or protector.
Petitions were signed and Facebook groups set up until the Bordelais got the support they needed to keep it for longer and longer and then, by the looks of things, permanently. Renou proved that if you make something big and crazy enough eventually everyone will love it, look at the Eiffel Tower.
"The Imaginary Historian"
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