Le contexte

Located in the heart of the city of Tours, Place du Grand Marché is one of the five squares around which the Old Tours district is organized. Taking advantage of the redevelopment project planned by the city of Tours, the patrons wanted to reinvent the identity of this part of the city center where contemporary life cohabits harmoniously with the presence of the past.

La commande

With this work, Xavier Veilhan revives the tradition of monumental public statuary. He created a fantastic character, a generic figure capable of arousing as much as welcoming everyone's imaginary projections. Inspired by the heraldic figures formerly dedicated to the coat of arms of each city, Le Monstre presents this assertive characteristic of "making an image". The work stands out thanks to its visual impact due to an artistic language deliberately reduced to the essential : a form, a colour, a material. These decisive qualities give it the dimension of a real urban landmark that signals as much as it redirects the activities and use of the square.

Xavier Veilhan

Xavier Veilhan was born in 1963 in Lyon. He lives and works in Paris. He is the author of a multiform, extremely rich and diversified work, based on traditional painting and sculpture techniques, but also on digital images and video, sometimes with installations. His work constantly explores the tools and means of representation - from the oldest to the most recent - while questioning its history and different styles.