The context

Jeanne Antide (1765-1826) is a founding nun of the Order of the Sisters of Charity in Besançon : she was canonized in 1934.
"La Boutique de Jeanne Antide" is an association that promotes the reception and integration of people in difficulty and at risk of exclusion. She now runs the "Fourneau économique" (created in the 19th century) for the distribution of meals (3 rue Champron in Besançon).

The association solicited people in difficulty who attend the "Economic Furnace" to find out their opinion on improving the site's environment, right next to a school and just behind the synagogue.

In 2008, this resulted in the desire to make the courtyard of the building facing the street more attractive. This expression of a desire that is widely shared and open to the view of the city's population, covers both questions of pleasure and symbolic questions (vitality, dignity...).

The commission

Sylvie Auvray proposes a set of enamelled ceramic bugs (made in Puisaye in the tradition of using sandstone - traditionally reserved for common and popular uses - by artists of the late 19th century such as Jean Carriès, author of the series of busts of the disinherited or the famous "Grenouillard" (character in the shape of a toad). Presented on concrete bases, this group of colourful sculptures provoking empathy pleasantly populate the courtyard of the "Fourneau économique" with a sense of complicity that has won the support of patrons and people in difficulty who frequent this rugged place of life. 

Sylvie Auvray

Sylvie Auvray (born in 1974) is initially a painter. Her paintings are exceptionally "imaged", using clear-cut, in-situ emotions, even if sometimes we think of James Ensor or Laura Owens. She also imagines ceramic creations of a perfect strangeness. His work was presented to the Consortium in Dijon, at the Mamco de Genève.