La Grande Croix rouge
April 2008, Château de La Coste, La Coste, France
Commissioned by the Château La Coste in 2008, Othoniel’s Grande Croix rouge (Large Red Cross) is a signpost that leads to Tadao Ando's concrete-and-glass structure, the château's Art Centre. Standing in front of that modernist building, it is a reminder of the large processional votive crosses carried in the Middle Ages.
In this monumental sculpture, Othoniel brings together several of his favorite themes: ritual, relics and the sacred. His blood-red, Murano-glass beads also refer to the early historical processions held in Jerusalem in memory of Christ's Passion.
With its smooth, seductive surfaces and formal simplicity, this bold, red-glass cross is a powerful response to Tadao Ando’s mininimalist architecture.
