La flotte
A monument floating realised on 2017 on the water of the hortillonnages (floating gardens) of Amiens in France. Under the cheerful aspects of baroque junk, consisting of 2300 plastic buoys (including ducks, frogs, and other inflatable varieties), this installation in garish colors evokes the beach recreation areas and bazaars of coastal tourist towns. We know today that many of these shores, previously viewed as holiday resorts and places of leisure, now welcome the dead bodies of children, and that the blue waters rocking them are a massive and frozen tomb for thousands of people fleeing wars. Recent history also tells us that the bait of a villainous gain in these places is attracting smugglers and traffickers of life vests, the typical scavengers who take their lugubrious tribute on the hope of survival. It is here that Mary Sue built her flamboyant monument of puerile indifference and futility. And—as in a Buster Keaton film—not all buoys float. Some of them flow inexorably. A some what more attentive view of this monument of silly gaiety reveals a large number of floats left behind, destined to sink in the quagmire of sediment.
La flotte
detail of the istallation,
Hortillonnages, Festival Art ville et Paysage,
Amiens, France
2017