Le Confident
November 2007, Square Docteur Lépine, Nice, France
In 2007, 15 internationally renowned artists - including Ben, Michael Craig Martin, Pierre Di Sciullo, Gunda Förster, Yann Kersalé, Jaume Plensa and Jean-Michel Othoniel - were chosen to invest urban Nice with works along the Nice Côte d'Azur tramway Line 1. They created permanent, site-specific artworks to enhance public spaces around the city.
Dealing with the theme of the "paysage diurne," or the daytime landscape, in which public spaces are treated as urban parlours, Othoniel designed Le Confident:
"Given the complexity of the public square (Square du Doyen Lépine), which is a crossroads for several different types of motion (tramway, pedestrians, cars) and different kinds of visitors, both young and old; and the challenge of providing street furniture that would neither encourage crowding nor be restricted only to individuals, I came up with the idea of creating a conversation." Jean-Michel Othoniel
A large-screen, curved aluminum veil crowned by a string of colored-glass beads, Le Confident delineates two protected sitting areas that invite passersby to slow down and dream. The aluminum holes are dense on one side and open on the other, which both creates privacy and encourages conversation. The work is like an outdoor confessional, at once public and private, allowing intimacy and openness, and shelters visitors from the urban environment like a protective bubble.
Othoniel’s Confident transforms Nice's tramway station Square-Doyen Lépine into a Garden of Eden, at once discreet and convivial.