Controversy in Toulouse, around a naked giant facing the cathedral
The image shocked some, around the Place Saint-Etienne in Toulouse. Since November 18, the “Salt Giant” by Spanish sculptors Coderch and Malavia has been living there. This 650-kilo statue is over two meters high and over three long. It represents a dancer thrown back, thighs spread and almost naked.
But “two hours later, the town hall called us to tell us that things were wrong“, declared to Agence France Presse Edouard Guiounet, collaborator of the Alain Daudet gallery, which exhibits works by Joan Coderch and Javier Malavia, including this sculpture. Toulousains had protested to the town hall, saying they were annoyed by this statue in front of a religious site.
The place had been chosen by the gallery for its cachet and its proximity: “Saint Etienne is a beautiful space, touristy and suitable for photos“, specifies Mr. Guiounet, adding that the gallery owners did not”not imagined“that the giant could disturb local residents.
This statue, of steel powder and polyester, inspired by a performance of buto, a Japanese dance, is a reproduction of another in bronze exhibited in Valencia (Spain) and around which took place “on August 6, a commemoration to the victims of the launching of the Hiroshima bomb“, according to the gallery owner.
Soon to be moved near the Jean-Jaurès metro
The town hall assured AFP that it was planned from the start that the Giant would be transferred from Place Saint-Etienne to another site, the François-Mitterrand esplanade, at the Jean-Jaurès metro exit, near Place Wilson. A “place of passage, neutral“, defends the elected in charge of the file, Jonnhy Dunal, explaining that the sculpture was installed in front of the cathedral,”the time that the esplanade is available“.
Coderch and Malavia’s agent Juan Rodrigo told AFP that the artists were on their side “very happy with the opportunity offered by the Toulouse city hall to share a message of peace, although some people did not understand it“.
The “Salt Giant” will be present in Toulouse at least until the end of the year, in parallel with the exhibition of other sculptures by Spanish artists which is to be inaugurated Thursday evening at the Alain Daudet gallery. The work has already been exhibited in Sweden, Germany and Italy.