The inhabitants of the town of Bobigny commissioned an artist to design a work for the Fête de la Bergère ("shepherdess' day") on 4 June 2000, in Bobigny. The patrons wanted a form that would both announce and then evoke the memory of the fête, thus making its duration more elastic and less abrupt. A video presents the proposal of the artist Serge Comte: 300 chimes in wood and metal, in one third of which the counterweight was replaced by a bag of birdseed. Hung in the trees of the park, their chiming produced a clear, light sound that varied with the wind, the rain, the presence of birds, the vibrations of the ground, people's interactions, and so on. Left there untended, the chimes naturally ended up disappearing...

The video presents the proposal of the artist Serge Comte: 300 wooden and metallic chimes, in one third of which the counterweight was replaced by a bag of birdseed. Hung in the trees of the park, their chiming produced a clear, light sound that varied with the wind, the rain, the presence of birds, the vibrations of the ground, the interactions with people, and so on. Left there untended, the 300 copies of the work naturally ended up disappearing...

Serge Comte

Serge Comte, born in 1966 in La Tronche, France, lives and works in Reykjavik, in Iceland. He studied at the École Supérieure d'Art de Grenoble. His work is filled with figures, characters and self-portraits often made of particular or everyday materials: Post-it notes, Lego bricks, plastic beads, etc.