The Listening Donkey
1% commission – Simone Veil’ High School
Architects Hellin-Sebbag
Gignac, Occitanie, France – 2022
The Listening Donkey | L’Âne qui Écoute is above all a reinterpretation of the legend of the donkey celebrated every year on Ascension Day in Gignac: “In the old days, in the hamlet of Tourettes, there lived the donkey Martin. He was very small and, because of his small size, was laughed at by the villagers. But he was very brave. On the night of the Ascension in 719, when the Saracens were ready to invade the village, the inhabitants were roused from their sleep by the discordant cries of the donkey, which began to bray with a power never thought it was capable of. Resistance was immediately organised from the ramparts and the town was saved.
Materials: Sculptures: Bronze with gold patina + Plinths: Hainaut stone + Plinths: Painted steel + Legend plaque: Enameled lava
Dimensions: Base 1 = 52 x 52 x 106 cm – Base 2 = 43 x 43 x 124 cm + Donkey head: 36 cm Donkey tail: 60 cm
+ Sculpture 1 : Height. Total height 106 cm – Sculpture 2 : Height. Total height 160 cm
Legend Plaque: 350 x 370 mm, thickness 25 mm + Footprint: 52 cm x 170 cm
Weight: Base 1: 770 kg + Donkey head 25 kg + plinths / Base 2: 616 Kg + Donkey tail 12 kg + plinths
Archive research, meetings with community groups and guided walks given by local residents
Initially, Cécile Pitois follows a pragmatic and intuitive process that leads her to canvas a given territory in order to capture a powerful element or determine a work angle before developing it further yet by prolonging or confronting this guiding line through a series of investigations. For this, she bases herself on both documentary research but also on encounters that give her an opportunity to glean information about the location, its history and its social life. Little by little, through the inhabitants’ crossed-perspectives, elements appear, the importance of which unfolds in her eyes.
