One of the things I love about Instagram is that it enables me to discover cool things going on in a city, which is useful when I’m travelling. About a week before I was due to arrive in Paris I started seeing something on my feed that I’d never seen before in Paris. Giant colourful laser-cut acrylic animals. Since I had only 1 day in Paris (and really only half a day by the time everything important is done) I had to be very choosy with what I wanted to see. The great thing about Paris is that everything stays the same (more or less). That building or museum or whatever will still be there next week, next year, next century.. so I have more than enough time to see the things I still haven’t seen (despite numerous visits) such as Musée d’Orsay and Père Lachaise cemetery…
So with my precious few hours I did a crazy thing to see these ‘animals’. I love anything cute, whimsical and colourful so they were very ‘me’. I also love art and sculptures of course, and I’m all for anything that’s helping to protect and preserve the environment for future generations.
This was not simply a fun sculpture exhibition. Behind its colourful façade lies a more serious message. The Arche de Noé (Noah’s ark) exhibition was used to highlight the upcoming UN Climate Change conference (COP21) that will be held in Paris 11 November – 11 December 2015 and to raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity.
About the sculptures
They were created by Gad Weil and his team (Kristian and Laurence Soulez) by request from Madame Ségolène Royal, the Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy. The sculptures were made with a special material called Altuglas, or “acrylic glass”. Now, when I think of acrylic I always think of plastic so I don’t know how it can be glass at the same time but in any case it was thick, transparent and came in a myriad of rainbow colours.
The exhibition consisted of 140 huge sculptures, with the animals in pairs (but spread out all over the garden so you really had to look to find the pairs) in true Noah’s Ark fashion. The sculptures started off at the Invalides but were soon transported to the Jardin des Plantes (Botanical garden), where they looked right at home amongst the beautiful flora.
Visitors were asked to share photos with the #ADNClimat hashtag.
Well, it was a fun little afternoon for me. We even saw a glimpse of the sun as it was setting which make the sculptures look even more magical.
