9th edition of "Voyage à Nantes" where the sculpture "fountain" is talked about

Text by: Muriel Maalouf

3 min

Let's go for the 9th edition of “Voyage à Nantes”. After some adjustments and a postponement of the opening due to Covid-19, the contemporary art festival opened on Saturday August 8 and will run until September 27. The works disseminated in the city thus make it possible to browse it while admiring the creations. Among these works, a sculpture entitled "Fontaine" has sparked controversy. However, it sits in one of the most prestigious squares in Nantes: the Place Royale. 

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On the legs of a colossus of 3 meters in pink sandstone, perched the lower body of a naked little girl. We only see the pelvis, a small pair of legs and especially a penis from which a jet of water comes out. The sculpture titled "Fountain" is by Elsa Sahal.J.

“  The artist actually winked at the work of Manneken Pis which is presented in Brussels and which has become the emblem of the city for centuries. So, she wanted to create the female counterpart of the Manneken Pis by creating this female fountain, and which could also speak of the presence of women in the public space which, as we all know, is much less than that of men. it is in the representation of the statuary, the names of the streets ... Here is a way of affirming the presence of the woman ”, explains Jenna Darde, in charge of programming of“ Voyage à Nantes ”.

Yet the work shown for the first time at the Paris Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC) in 2012 has struggled to find its place in the public space. In its programming, the Nantes festival has suffered sometimes very violent criticism on social networks. 

But “Le Voyage à Nantes” resisted and even hopes to find a permanent place for the statue in the city. Today, we photograph ourselves with the little girl who pees, from Elsa Sahal in Nantes as in front of the Manneken Pis in Brussels. 

Always surprising, @levoyageanantes starts this weekend! 😍
From August 8 to September 27, #Nantes becomes an open-air museum. About twenty artistic proposals join the route of more than 120 works to discover along the green line. # Monéténantais☀️ #Lvan pic.twitter.com/6ImUTNoSAp

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