Elegant and ethereal, the sculpture by the visual artist Phoebe Eustance extends its immaculate lines along the banks of an islet in the Hortillonnages. The British artist, an ardent admirer of the work of Giotto di Bondone, the Italian architect and painter from Trecento who influenced generations of builders and inspired the Renaissance movement, adopts one of the motifs from his paintings and sets it amongst nature: characterised by its long, slim colonnades, its white galvanised steel structure, positioned between land and water, seems to launch an ascent skywards. It has been especially designed for the site and responds to its topography and vegetation, a graphic construction which is both in harmony and disharmony with the very particular ambience of the Hortillonnages. This creates a dialogue between the work and the space: lines and views are revealed, reflections appear, the water channels reflecting a troubled and distorted vision of the rectilinear structure to the visitor in a boat. A fleeting mirage or a real edifice, all interpretations are permissible for a piece which changes the visitor’s perspective of their environment.

Phoebe Eustance was born in 1990 and graduated from Leeds University in 2013. The sculpture constructed in the setting of the Hortillonnages forms part of a developing body of work, following on from a work named Pavillon after Giotto, and takes up one of the motifs of the famous Florentine master.