This is the story of a big waste. For more than thirty years, a steel colossus has been sleeping in a hangar owned by its owner, the City of Paris. This monumental sculpture, named Clara-Clara, is however signed by Richard Serra, a reference in contemporary art, whose works are worth millions of dollars. Since the death of the American sculptor on March 26, the work has suddenly reappeared in the municipal debate.
“What future holds for such a major sculpture? “, Aurélien Véron, an elected official (Les Républicains) from the Changer Paris group, was moved on “officially that the town hall chooses an emblematic place to exhibit the work again… Parisians deserve it.” The municipal team did not respond officially to this post. But the entourage of Carine Rolland, assistant in charge of culture, claims to explore today “three slopes in the historic heart of Paris”.
Although Richard Serra may have had all the honors, he posed his Ellipses at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and planted his steles in the desert of Doha, Qatar, he never digested the purgatory of Clara-Clara. “Serra was all the more affected because this work, which bears his wife’s name, is fundamental in his career,” recalls Alfred Pacquement, former director of the National Museum of Modern Art.
Considered ugly and cumbersome
The story goes back to 1983. The Center Pompidou decides to devote a retrospective to Richard Serra. To give the full measure of a work which disrupts the scale of sculpture, the museum commissioned Clara-Clara, two long curves of 36 meters of symmetrical and opposite slightly inclined Corten steel. Too heavy to occupy the Beaubourg forum, the sculpture was finally installed at the entrance to the Tuileries garden, between the Musée de l’Orangerie and that of the Jeu de Paume, where it disrupted Le Nôtre’s perspective. “ Clara-Clara, it’s an invitation to take a walk that makes you see the world differently, greet The world. It breaks certainties, displaces, decenters, unhinges, without destroying the place. »
Jacques Toubon, then mayor of 13e arrondissement, is convinced that this major piece must remain in Paris. This close friend of Jacques Chirac convinced the Town Hall to buy it. In 1985, Clara-Clara leaves the Tuileries for the lawn of the Square de Choisy, a popular park which has just been rehabilitated. Alas, local residents and neighborhood associations quickly take a dislike to it. Considered ugly and cumbersome, Clara-Clara is regularly tagged. “People even knowingly left bags of garbage at the foot of the sculpture, says Jacques Toubon. HAS for a moment, it was no longer tenable. » Clara-Clara disappeared into the City’s reserves in 1990.
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