The Manneken Pis he has found his female counterpart Brussels to Nantes? This summer, a feminist version of the “little man who pisses” in a fountain in the Belgian capital will be installed in the capital of Loire-Atlantique.
Read also: The Manneken-Pis will now urinate in an ecological way
Baptized Fontaine , it is the work of Elsa Sahal and will be exhibited on August 8 on Place Royale as part of Voyage à Nantes. A "tribute to the figures of triumphant femininity that adorn this 19th century sculptural ensemble" , can be read on the site of this artistic installation in the City of the Dukes.
Three meters high, the pink enameled sandstone sculpture far exceeds the 55 centimeters of the bronze work by Jérôme Duquesnoy the Elder. "It is a feminist response to the Manneken-pis in Brussels" , explains to Ouest-France Marie Dupas, in charge of programming at Voyage à Nantes.
Narrative, talkative and feminist
“He is a pissing figure, whose title is a snub to Marcel Duchamp's urinal,” explains Elsa Sahal of her work. In the continuous flow of the urine stream, there was the idea that little girls too could piss thick, far, and continuously. And that this, ironically, can happen in public spaces where only male urine is admitted! ”
"There was a manifest character in this sculpture, which is perhaps the most narrative, the most talkative and the most feminist that I could make, specifies the artist trained at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. The pissing figure is a decidedly masculine motif in art history, which many female artists have diverted since the 1970s. ”
Installed in the Jardin des Tuileries at FIAC 2012, Fontaine has also been exhibited at the Hôtel-Dieu in Toulouse and at the Maison Rouge in Paris in recent years.