La Provence, June 4, 2020. Avignon. An imposing sculpture weighing more than a ton by artist Matthieu Faury was installed in the garden of the Palais des Papes on Tuesday.
A gorilla stands guard in the palace garden.
Matthieu Faury's imposing 1.3-ton sculpture will not budge from its base until the end of August.
Sitting with his chest outstretched, his fists closed, his mouth open in a large oval, he is riveted to his observation post, facing the lush garden of the Palais des Papes. One can imagine him, at the slightest sign of danger, rushing onto a wall of the building, climbing it to join the gargoyles, centuries-old lookouts. Would the primates have lost themselves in the corridors of time, believing to find other accomplices of the wild world when this place housed the menagerie of the popes (lioness, ostriches, deer, multicolored birds ... prestigious gifts offered to the sovereign pontiffs)? Or one of his congeners out of the imagination of the Avignon native Pierre Boulle, author of "The Planet of the Apes"?
An Avignon adventure from A to Z
Matthieu Faury's sculpture could not have dreamed of a more allegorical location. The visitor at his approach, has plenty of time to tell a bunch of stories, to project his emotions, or more prosaically "to remember that gorillas are always hunted in the forests of the Congo" recalls the artist working in the ‘Village des métiers’ in Avignon since 2011. The monkeys have always inspired him, he has drawn sketches in profusion, modeled effigies. “The monkey is another ourselves, close to us while being different. By studying primates we learn more about us humans ”.