Pluie O33/5

5 polished aluminium javelins, 5 stainless steel mirrors, 5 neons lights
280 cm height, base 124 x 90 x 10 cm 

Pluie O33/5 originates from Jean-Charles Pigeau’s enduring fascination with the link “between heaven and earth”. The pointed ends of the javelins that make up the work draw our gaze upwards, while they are simultaneously reflected in the polished mirrors that support them. This forms an infinite extension of the aluminium line, and echoes the installation’s title, which seems to make an almost tangible representation of rain.^[1]

The neon lights in the colours of the Olympic rings – used here by the artist for the first time – embrace the “circle and line” with gentle intensity, as they are fundamental elements of Jean-Charles Pigeau’s work.^[2] Pluie O33/5 is a concise, tightly knit version (like a haiku, the artist notes) of Pluie O33 2018, a monumental installation of 33 fuselages conceived in the run-up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games for the public space of Paris.

The javelin has been a recurring theme in the artist’s work since 1983, for a number of reasons. Firstly, due to its shape and lightness, and its nature as a manufactured object that changes context once it becomes artistic material. Then there’s its symbolism: the javelin evokes both an ancient weapon and a sport that has spanned the centuries, an area in which Jean-Charles Pigeau finds a certain affinity with the Buddhist and Taoist philosophies he favours. He sees a form of sacredness in sport, which the Olympic and Paralympic Games carry with them, and which the artist wants to keep a trace of here. Pluie O33/5 is also a nod to the newly renovated spaces dedicated to the RAJA SPORT association at the company’s European headquarters.

^[1] Evenos, Claude, 1985

^[2] Delormas Jérôme, « Jean-Charles Pigeau arpenteur », 1993