Vénus parade

Venuses from the dawn of time are showing off their colorful opulence atop the fountain on Place Notre-Dame. Clédat & Petitpierre’s female figures, modeled on miniature paleolithic statues, royally impose their statuesque forms in a joyous celebration of ancestral femininity.

Having arrived in a grand procession on sedan chairs, they are being honored as secular relics after traveling across the centuries to jog our memory. From the Pyrenees to Lake Baikal, the paleolithic left us a lot of these miniature stone, ivory, and terra cotta statues. Frequently voluptuous, the figures were always standing, and you could carry the statuette with you or even wear it around your neck. Touched by these deeply moving objects of humanity, Clédat & Petitpierre made the figures life size and allow them to sit and eat. After such a long journey, they deserve some rest!

Born in 1966, Yvan Clédat and Coco Petitpierre live and work in Drancy (France). Sculptors, performance artists, and choreographers, they test the limits of exhibit spaces and the stage through multiform, fun work in which the two artists’ bodies are frequently in play. Their works are shown in France and 15 other countries at festivals and in art centers, museums, and theaters (Centre Pompidou – Paris; Musée des Confluences – Lyon; Nuit Blanche – Taiwan; La Villette – Paris). They also work together as set or costume designers for numerous directors and choreographers working in contemporary stage forms.