"Look, look, it's like a theater stage", enthuses the artist born in 1964 in northeastern India, pointing to two of his huge creations nestled under the windows of the department store "Le Bon Marché" - owned by the luxury group LVMH - in Paris.

His name may not say anything to the general public, but some of his works have remained in the memory of many Parisians.

The best known ?

"Very Hungry God", a monumental skull composed of stainless steel kitchen utensils installed twice in Paris and which has become his artistic signature.

This time, no giant skull but again and again thousands of jugs and cooking utensils assembled.

"I've been working with these objects for a while", jokes this passionate about good food, convinced that the "soul of a people is also found in its gastronomy".

With his works, Subodh Gupta explores the importance of everyday objects in the construction of an individual and collective identity.

In particular that of a country, his own.

12 meters high

Considered one of the great names in contemporary art, Subodh Gupta has exhibited his works in many European museums, including the Tate in London.

In 2018, "la Monnaie de Paris" devoted a first major retrospective to him.

Entitled "Sangam", named after the confluence of three rivers - the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Saraswati -, the Indian designer's carte blanche is displayed on the windows of the Parisian department store and within it, with three monumental works.¨

"Confluences because, here, people from all over the world meet. We are at the confluence of different cultures", he says.

But not only.

This exhibition is also at the confluence between art and the mercantile, as at the confluence of second-hand and new objects.

Faithful to its imposing - even thunderous - aestheticism, the works exhibited at Le Bon Marché appear like an upsurge.

Two of them, "Sangam I" (a traditional Indian pot) and "Sangam II" (a bucket) are suspended from the windows and are 12 meters high.

The most spectacular work remains the one he called "The Proust effect", a huge suspended hut composed - like the other two - only of kitchen utensils: teapot, trays, pots, pans... "The whole put together like a puzzle," he confides.

Added to this is the work carried out in the windows and which uses holograms.

Like when you see a small naan, the traditional stuffed bread of your country, appear on a motorcycle.

"Artistic performance is the very essence of my art. I even want to say that my works are artistic performances", explains the one who, in his youth, did theater.

Indian contemporary artist Subodh Gupta in Paris, January 9, 2023 © JOEL SAGET / AFP

Doesn't exhibiting his works outside a major museum pose a problem for him?

No, he retorts without flinching: "Exhibiting my works in atypical and unconventional places is a good thing because it allows you to reach an audience that does not frequent museums or galleries".

Above all, he insists, "I made no compromises. I had total freedom".

© 2023 AFP