47
main et un poème »
(Lettre du poète à son ami Hans
Bender, en 1960).
Pour ma part, je regarde chaque sculpture de Christian
Lapie comme une poignée de main, autant avec le
spectateur qu’avec le lieu où elle s’inscrit, le site qu’elle
instaure. Comme le geste des mains échangées insti-
tue entre ceux qui l’échangent une égale dignité, une
reconnaissance amicale ou respectueuse qui nous
façonne en véritables frères d’humanité, la sculpture
signe le lieu où elle s’insère et établit un dialogue entre
l’échelle du site, le corps du spectateur et sa propre
composition plastique.
Et la sculpture est encore, par ce bois dont elle est faite,
comme une poignée de main que l’homme échange
avec la nature, avec la forêt ou l’arbre. Une invitation,
une promesse. L’œuvre est une forme qui donne
comme hospitalité à l’arbre.
that is done there, presented there, exhibited there
2
. This is
obviously akin to the notion of
site-specificity
developed
by Richard Serra to designate the intensely specific
relationship to place that makes his public sculpture a
response – a critical one, to be sure, but definitely singular –
to the particular features of a given site, in terms of its
geography and its social function.
What differentiates Christian Lapie’s monumental
installations from those of Daniel Buren or Richard
Serra is not the way they are integrated into the site.
If sculpture is more than merely an object set down
somewhere, it necessarily changes the surrounding space
profoundly, metamorphosing it and completely altering
our perception of it. In my view, the essential difference
lies in the spirit of the metamorphosis itself: for Christian
Lapie, it is a kind of dialogue, a conversation between
equals – between a place and a work of art. To use a
metaphor, when I contemplate one of Christian Lapie’s
creations installed within a site, whether temporarily or
permanently – here I’m thinking of
Un silence sans ombre
[A SilenceWithout Shadow] at Noirlac Abbey in 2015, and
the figures
Dans l’intervalle
[In the meantime] in a public
square in Reims since 2011 – I amalways reminded of Paul
Celan’s definition of a poem:
“I see no difference between a handshake and a poem”
(Letter from the poet to his friend Hans Bender in 1960).
Personally, I see each of Christian Lapie’s sculptures as a
handshake with the spectator as much as with the place
in which it is inscribed, the site, which it creates. Just as the
gesture of shaking hands establishes equal dignitybetween
two people, a friendly or respectful acknowledgement that
turns us into genuine human brothers, this sculpture is the
signature of the place where it is inserted and establishes
a dialogue between the scale of the site, the spectator’s
body and its own plastic composition.
And through thewood fromwhich it is made, the sculpture
is also like a handshake that humankind exchanges with
nature, forest or tree. An invitation, a promise. The work is
a form that offers hospitality to the tree.
Un Silence sans ombre
.
2013, 1 figure et 3 sphères en chêne traité, 240 x 100 x 150 cm.
Exposition
Les Contours du silence
, Abbaye de Noirlac, Bruère-Allichamps, Cher, France, 2013.
