Last brush stroke before the reopening of the “Cyclop”. This monumental metal sculpture, installed in the woods of Milly-la-Forêt in Essonne, must reopen this weekend after a restoration that will have lasted more than a year.
Final preparations in the Milly forest. At the end of their rope, abseiling on the 22.50m high façade, the rope access technicians apply a final coat of black tar paint to the metal structure of the monumental work.
This sculpture created by the couple Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle houses fantastic mechanics but also unusual works by some fifteen artists, friends of the couple. Eva Aeppli, Seppi Imhof, Bernhard Luginbühl, Arman, César, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Pierre Raynaud, Jesús Rafael Soto, Rico Weber, Larry Rivers, Philippe Bouveret and Pierre Marie Lejeune participated in this collective work, which took place from 1969 to 1994.
Inside the head of the sculpture, the team of Cyclop business. It remains to install some works. You have to lubricate and adjust the machines. “The mechanisms of the Cyclop, it’s a clever dose of grease, because it has to roll and at the same time it has to creak”, mischievously explains François Taillade, the director of the association of Cyclop.
A single eye, a head sparkling with mirrors, a mouth from which water trickles down a tongue-slide and a monumental ear. This is what we see when we emerge into the clearing. But Le Cyclop it is also a work in which one enters. We discover the sound sculptures, these machinery with scrap metal gears, but also the works of artist friends: L’Tribute to the deportees of Eva Aeppli The electrical panel by Rico Weber or the Small Museum by Giovanni Battista Podesta. Works that are both serious and full of humour.
Le Cyclop is a collective adventure that began in 1969. Also called The head or The Monster in the Forest, Le Cyclop is a unique monument in the history of art but also the fruit of an adventure woven from bonds of friendship. A utopia achieved over many years by “a team of crazy sculptors” gathered around the personality of Jean Tinguely.
“During this year, a whole set of works have been restored by the Cnap“le National Center for Plastic Arts, who ensures its preservation, specifies François Taillade.
Among them, The column by Niki de Saint Phalle: “On this column, the horns she loved, which we touch because they are supposed to bring good luck, have been redone by the ceramists of the Tarot Garden (A work by the artist installed in Tuscany, editor’s note). Thanks to their work, they have regained their original shine.“, rejoices François Taillade.
Le Cyclop requires constant maintenance. At the initiative of the Cnap and many sponsors, a restoration has been undertaken. “This degradation of the Cyclop is the work of time passing and the weather” summarizes the director of the Cyclop association. We are in Île-de-France with temperatures that can drop to -10° and rise to more than 30°. You should know that here we are in the middle of nature in the middle of the woods of Milly“, he recalls.
Centerpiece of Cyclop, The face of mirrors by Niki de Saint Phalle required a complete renovation. “We changed all the mirrors that had deterioratedsays Carole Aquaviva, heritage restorer. “Very quickly after their installation, the mirrors began to become opaque and especially to detach from their support and it became dangerous”she says.
“So we intervened to change 62,000 mirrors”continues the restorer. “We made 1/1 scale readings of each mirror, then we used a natural latex to create a counter-shape of the mirrors which we then transferred to paper and thus create the mirrors identically. original“.
This Sunday, May 22 marks the end of the construction site and the sculpture is back in service. To celebrate the reopening of the place, the association Le Cyclopin charge of the management of the place, proposes to the public to associate the artists with its new youth.
Strength of the program, until November 6, the weekend at nightfall, the artist Caty Olive, will reveal the magic of the place with her luminous installation. What to take full eyes.
To see, a report by Isabelle Dupont and Gilles Bézou.
video length: 02min 14
The Cyclop gets a makeover
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