Studies in Brooklyn
Research project | Public Art
Residency Selch House, New York, U.S.A. – 2007
Since the 1990s, through her various creative artworks in France, her studies for the city of New York, a series of projects in Saxe-Anhalt and three new pieces for social housing projects in Brussels, the artist Cécile Pitois has been developing an entire thought process focusing on notions of the city and public space. Her sculptural creations, entitled Sculptures à Souhait—Wishful Sculptures—are based on invented, fictional tales that fire the imagination and encourage new readings of the location and new types of social appropriation. The resulting artistic gesture can be likened to an offering made to the city. At the same time this mark of generosity— this gift—requires a form of ritual and social exchange.
OVER WALLS
Red Hook, Brooklyn
Built in 1938, Red Hook is a large social housing development intended for longshoremen and their families. The complex is a success in terms of urban design as it includes areas where residents can meet and mingle. However, a sort of invisible wall surrounds it, isolating it from the rest of the neighborhood. This proposal consists of a huge sculpture standing like a lighthouse at the junction of two areas that seldom mix, while words from the “text-legend” cover the façades of some buildings in the form of painted metallic letters. This project pays tribute to the ties of friendship and solidarity that exist between the inhabitants of these neighborhoods, which all too often become ghettoes.
NOT FOUND
Flatbush & Nostrand Avenues, Brooklyn, New York City
In the area around Nostrand Avenue and Flatbush Avenue two communities belonging to different social classes coexist but rarely, if ever, mingle. The project is designed for the central avenue that separates these two communities. In this space, two majestic sculptures of lions will face each other majestically. One of them will bear a quote from Martin Luther King that appears on an inscription inside the famous Brooklyn College. Here, however, King’s words echo life in the street: “True peace is not the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice.” As she addresses local residents, the artist questions natural feelings of justice and injustice with respect to legality in a country whose history is closely bound up with these notions
ME, ME, ME AND YOU
Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York
Me, me, Me and You does not rely on the construction of a “text-legend”. It is based on the social reality of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a highly multicultural neighborhood where there is nonetheless a real sense of harmony among the people who live there. The project aims to support this positive aspect of social life by creating a meeting place that relies on non-verbal interactions. The artist proposes to construct a huge revolving table like a carrousel at a place in the park where there used to be a merry-go-round. The locals could picnic here and share their culture through food, transforming the place into a public meeting area where people mingle and get to know one another.
