It is a new statuette tinted in bright red by local artist James Colomina that was placed high up in the center of Toulouse a few weeks ago. And if you don't look up to the sky, it will be difficult to see it!
A new work installed...
A street artist from Toulouse and committed (his works all have a societal or political message), James Colomina is known for installing, without prior authorization, his red-tinted sculptures in public spaces in the Ville Rose, but also in those around the world (Paris, Barcelona, London, etc.).
And on the occasion of the 2024 Olympic Games, the latter, aged around fifty, created a new work called "The Ringed Fisherman" which he placed in height in one of the busy streets of the hypercentre of Toulouse.
… Almost before your eyes!
If you hadn’t noticed it yet, this symbolic statuette took its place, a few weeks ago, on the roof of a building on rue Saint-Jérôme, which is located between the Espace Saint-Georges and the rue Saint-Antoine du T.
This is where a man now sits, sitting with his feet in the air, a hood over his head and a bandana covering part of his face, fishing for the red ring of the Olympic rings, the symbol of the event that will bring together, from Friday 26 July to Sunday 11 August, more than 500 athletes from all over the world.
A message to convey
Through this sculpture made from body casts and mixed structures, the artist wanted to convey a double message: "With this installation, I wanted to highlight the athletes who participate in the games without a country and those who do not have a flag but still recover a nation", he first mentioned.
And to give his opinion on another aspect of this major global sporting event: "The figure of the fisherman can also symbolize the capture and appropriation of Olympic values for lucrative purposes."
The latest action by the Toulouse artist
Usually discreet, James Colomina made headlines this Wednesday, July 10 2024. And for good reason, the street artist called on an accomplice to set up a stand on the banks of the Seine in Paris to sell... Eau de Seine at 10 euros for a fifty-centilitre bottle "finely polluted".
A new message (still on the theme of the Olympic Games) to denounce the cost of cleaning up the river for the various Olympic events: 1 billion four hundred thousand euros. A militant intervention quickly stopped by the police.
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