Inauguration of a sculpture at the Town Hall
From the Town Hall of Bouchet 26790/France.
This Friday, July 21, 2023 was inaugurated on the forecourt of our Town Hall a monumental work by our sculptor Bousquetain Arson, called "the plank tree".
An exhibition in the form of an ephemeral art gallery has been set up for the occasion in the Town Hall, thus showing all the works of our sculptor Bousquetain.
In front of a large audience for the occasion, the French sculptor and for the past two years, Bousquetain, explained to us the progress of this realization from the idea that led him to design, then create and manufacture this monumental sculpture.
- So Arson, what is it about with this sculpture?
“In fact it is about the impact of man on nature, his madness in wanting to transform and master everything and the consequences for the life of man on earth”.
-Why a tree?
“I have always loved trees, for me, natural sculptures…, as essential for life as water or the air we breathe. Without trees there is no life, I like to touch them, talk to them and thank them for sheltering so many wildlife and biodiversity.
I suffer to see them burning by the millions of hectares like in Canada or in Siberia and even in France and all over the world uncontrollable fires, or millions of hectares of forests cut like in the Amazon… without discernment or respect.
In his proud delirium to conform nature as he needs it and his megalomaniacal, narcissistic pretension and above all, greedy for financial results, man ended up inventing a square tree to make beams of it, with branches already formed into planks and thus, optimize the yield.
Sensitive to the harm that man does to nature and, therefore, to himself, I imagined the unimaginable (at least, I hope so), by creating the sculpture of this denatured tree, which could be made by man to make nature ever more profitable.
The examples are endless and in all areas, so diverse and frenetic is human activity.
I called my sculpture "The Plank Tree", because it was designed to be cut with the least human intervention and no frills. The trunk will make the beams, the branches of the boards or cleats. No fuss, no leaves, no fruit, we're not here to laugh, but to optimize and make a profit!
The human will probably disappear, like five times before him already, living on earth…. And, for me, art (particularly sculpture) is the trace of the best in man. His legacy, as a timeless and sacred testimony. There will remain ruins of concrete and steel and sculptures.
-You're going to scare your audience, it's not all that optimistic.
"For me, an artist, whatever his discipline, must warn about the problems of his time and I don't care if it is not received or understood. I have to do it, it's a necessary cry and I do it according to me and above all, for me.
Let's look at this tree and realize that if our madness, to want to dominate nature by transforming it for our sole benefit, continues, it will lead us to the loss and disappearance of our human race. Electric cars will not be enough to solve a problem that is beyond humans.
Remember this prophetic Native American proverb.
“When the last tree has been felled, when the last river has been poisoned, when the last fish has been caught, then at last we will know that money is not eaten”.
It is this Native American proverb, which really touched me with its common sense and the obviousness of its message, which inspired this sculpture a little.
No one will see that a contemporary sculpture, an additional sculpture but this symbolic tree, is a tribute to all the civilizations of yesteryear respectful of nature, which lived in harmony with it, but which we have cut down and, in honor of all these peoples that we have destroyed, in the name of imbecile beliefs still in the service of power.
As a just return of things, these peoples, disappeared or dissolved in our civilization, may well have, unfortunately, their revenge. »
-Still nothing optimistic then?
So if, for optimists, there is still hope, some resistance or dissidence and I wanted to pay tribute to them. You will see Hope, here symbolized by a pretty leaf that refuses this disastrous fate.
Will she win the game? It is in each of us that there is the answer.
Let's just try to get back to the nature of things in all areas.
-Thank you Arson and continue to challenge us for a long time.
