"It's possible on a motorcycle," sang Johnny Hallyday, on the Bercy stage during a live concert in 1990, while a stuntman zigzagged on the track on the back of a roaring bike.
On Wednesday, a decision echoed him: the Council of Paris approved the donation of an art gallery, in the form of a six-meter high sculpture, in order to pay tribute to the singer who died in December 2017, despite opposition from the Greens.
Depicted as a "poetic confrontation of two inseparable emblems of the rocker figure: a guitar and a motorcycle" by the city of Paris, the work by Bertrand Lavier consists of a stainless steel pole representing a guitar neck, at the top of which sits, in an inclined manner, a metal blue Fat Boy model from the Harley-Davidson brand.
A reference that does not pass with environmentalists.
At the end of the consultations, however, the draft deliberation was mostly validated.
Sculpture soon on the forecourt of Paris-Bercy
The sculpture offered by the Kamel Mennour gallery is to be installed on the forecourt of the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, where the singer who died in 2017 gave 101 performances and where a tribute concert will take place on September 14.
On this occasion, the square will be renamed Esplanade Johnny-Hallyday.
But Emmanuelle Pierre-Marie, the EELV mayor of the 12th arrondissement where the POPB enclosure is located and who had removed the subject from the agenda of her last arrondissement council, denounced a work "not up to the task - no pun intended - of this immense singer ”, in particular for“ aesthetic reasons ”.
"Foot of the nose" for some, "work of art" for others
"The work seems to us more to honor a certain brand of motorcycles than Johnny Hallyday himself, in a form of snubbing at some of the policies that our majority is pursuing", added the elected ecologist the day after the adoption of '' a reform which provides for paid parking for thermal motorized two-wheelers in the capital from 2022.
"Yes, it is a motorcycle, but it does not pollute, it is a work of art", replied the mayor PS Anne Hidalgo for whom "one of the functions of art" is to "cause controversy ".
"It is an object which also symbolizes this artist and I invite you to raise the debate, not to caricature ourselves", said the possible candidate of the PS for the presidential election.
Our Johnny Hallyday file
"The Harley-Davidson and the guitar are, it is indisputable, quite representative of Johnny Hallyday", also estimated Raphaëlle Primet (PCF).
"Environmentalists do not have to rewrite the history of the life of an artist", criticized for her part Valérie Montandon (LR), denouncing "the impudence" of EELV and recalling the recent controversies on the Tour de France, flying clubs or Christmas trees.
Paris
Memories, memories: Bercy will host a tribute concert to Johnny Hallyday on September 14
Culture
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Paris
Anne Hidalgo
EELV
Art
Motorbike
Johnny Hallyday