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Les Championnes de César

  • Exhibition, Jouy-en-Josas
  • Thu 09 Oct 1986 → Mon 05 Jan 1987
Les Championnes de César 1986
Vue de l’exposition Les Championnes de César, Jouy-en-Josas, 1987 © SBJ / Adagp, Paris Photo © André Morain, Paris

Location

Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain

2 Rue du Montcel

78350 Jouy-en-Josas

In 1960, a loving relationship blossomed between César and automobiles. When in December 1985, Peugeot Talbot Sport revealed its six champion rally cars to César, the artist then remembered his first idea from 1959: flat car compressions.

Les Championnes were reduced into “pancakes” just 11 inches thick. Through many aspects, these compressions are reminiscent of the flat sculptures from the end of the 60s, but they differ essentially in the way they are treated mechanically: compressed and squared off. These are Les Championnes and the fitting tribute paid to them. Even more than a tribute, these compressions are the image itself of their memory.

More pieces were also created with other 205-series cars, which allowed the sculptor to go even further in this new approach, which renewed his compression style developed from a material and a specific operational method.

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