Iraklion

Maurice Ruche (Geneva, 1920)
Collection : Fonds d'art contemporain de la Ville de Genève (FMAC)

Very familiar to Genevans, the two columns soaring vertically on the Rond-point de Plainpalais flag this urban intersection far and wide. The sculptures – long, white, concrete polyhedrons with faceted surfaces – are six times the height of a human being. Through their geometric shapes and their color, they stand out sharply from their architectural environment, while harmoniously integrating into it. Their twenty-four tons of concrete elegantly and soberly tower over the trees, passers-by, station, tramway and cars that keep this space teeming with life. Set within a rectangular parallelepiped, each column consists of twelve superimposed seven-sided convex polyhedrons. At night, the sculpture is ornamented by shadows and lights depending on how the streetlamps reflect on the obliquely cut surface. Created by the self-taught sculptor, designer and painter Maurice Ruche, Iraklion, named after the ancient Greek city of Heraklion, is one of the most important monumental works by this Genevan artist. With his great love of the functional, rigorous esthetics of geometric abstraction, he was one of the pioneers of the use of aluminum and plexiglas in Switzerland. As with Iraklion, Ruche's works often mix the technological advances of architecture with those of engineering.
Article commissioned by P3Art
Notice: Séverine Fromaigeat, translation: Matthew Cunningham