CONCEPT OF THE SCULPTURE

The sculpture ‘L’envol industriel’ combines industry and history, strength and poetry, to create a dynamic that invites us to rise up and reflect on the future. In the centre of the sculpture, a cogwheel can be seen in plan view, surrounded by another cogwheel that is open to form a gear. This gear is open and the movement it generates will not be cyclical. By extruding this gear onto its vertical axis, it takes on the appearance of a Greek column with its grooves. This shape is made from half-tubes of steel that have been torch-burnt to create unique, random cut-outs. Gears and steel, essential elements of mechanics and therefore of industry, are here hijacked to become a Greek column, a symbol of durability, heritage and history. This transformation of the column into a cogwheel, of stone into steel, of the natural into the artificial, of long time into short time, offers a reflection on the industrial era and the legacy it will leave to tomorrow’s society.


Acknowledgements Gérard Dejardin, Grégory Bellaire, Albert Liégeois and Francis Brasseur of Ateliers Melens & Dejardin.