On the pediment of the City Hall, Mathieu Mercier takes great joy in extending the Republican motto of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" with twelve more words ending in the same suffix, evoking pleasure, desire or savoir-vivre. “Volupté, diversité, curiosité, sensibilité” [Voluptuousness, diversity, curiosity, sensitivity] and more therefore come to frame these Republican principles with humour and lightness, in the artist's usual approach: analysing contexts and making shifts that obey simple principles or rules. The work becomes a real pun on an architectural scale, following the rhythm of the columns of Perret's famous monument.
Meanwhile, the artist also offers a DIY cardboard model reproducing the City Hall, augmented by the temporary installation of words around its original Republican pediment, which will be made available free of charge to the public. This will be distributed throughout the summer at the information point and will allow the public to take away a souvenir of this piece, free of charge.
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