Toulouse. Have you seen this new sculpture by James Colomina to defend the peace?
By Guillaume Laurent
Published on
After the man with the apple head on the Ramblas of Toulouse, the man with the teddy bear on the side of Barcelona, but also the traveler, the passenger, the child in the dunce cap, the child of ‘AZF, or even the child with a diving mask… The big family of the little red men of James Colombina grows further, Toulouse!
The child with a rifle… and especially with a rose
This time it’s a child with a masked face, holding a rifle between the arms, with a rose that closes the end of the barrel, which made its appearance in the middle of the city. The new work by the street artist from the Pink City has been installed above the American Cosmograph cinema, located at 24 rue Montardy. She’s nestled in an empty spot for years.
“A place of culture, where there is a certain open-mindedness”
The place was not chosen at random: “I liked the Utopia, and today the American Cosmograph, which I frequent as a Toulouse lambda”, says the sculptor.
On the night of Wednesday April 13 to Thursday April 14, 2022, at 5 a.m., he therefore installed the latest addition to his creation above the facade of the cinema, because it is “a place of culture where there is a certain open-minded”.
Tribute to children, “first victims” of war
If the war in Ukraine was “the trigger” for this new project, James Colomina having been “much affected” by the ravages of the conflict, the message of the sculpture is intended to be broader.
“It is a sculpture which aims to remind us that children are the first victims of armed conflicts in the world, and thus to defend peace. Ukraine, but also Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria… There are wars all over the world and children are too often held hostage to it”.
This sculpture bears witness in its own way to “the fragility of life”. With its flower that blocks the barrel, “to give more importance to the rose than to the gun”, it also and above all intends to “defend peace”. James Colomina called it… The child with the rose.
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