Volume

Paris, November 2024.

The location is so well suited to demonstrations. The wide Rivoli street crosses the start of the Sébastopol Boulevard in a very open space, now largely devoted to environmentally friendly mobility. But it’s a different kind of space that suddenly faces us. An enormous light grey volume, made almost static by the conjunction of two opposing forces: the continuous hot air flowing out of the ventilation shaft pushes this thin fabric upwards. At the same time, sufficiently strong green tentacles hold it down.
Like a captive balloon similar to the one that carried the ‘Olympic torch’ for much of the summer, this whale floating in the air is far more visible than the scriptural shots that usually saturate urban space. A cousin of the sculptures in the nearby Stravinsky Fountain, it has more than just an aesthetic purpose. On its side are two simple words: ‘Free Watson’. He was their spokesman for so long; now silenced, an urban whale is frolicking to speak for him.