Perron IV

Gérard Musy (Wettingen, 1955)
Collection : Fonds d'art contemporain de la Ville de Genève (FMAC)

Erected on the plaza of Rue du Perron at the edge of the Old Town, the sculpture Perron IV is the work of the Genevan artist Gérard Musy. After winning the public art competition, he created an abstract volume five meters high, weighing nearly three tons, crisscrossed by multiple crevices. Looming up out of the fountain that serves as their hollow plinth, the tumultuous forms of Perron IV – so numbered because it is the artist’s fourth work – offer a gripping contrast with their environment. The organic contours, the dramatic movement and the imposing bronze mass clearly stand out from the architectural layout of the plaza, which dates back to 1961 and is dominated by the marriage of stone and concrete. Around sixty cast bronze pieces were assembled to construct this sculpture whose black patina is the result of an acid treatment. Both an ornament and a distinctive symbol of the plaza, Gérard Musy’s work stands like a fantastical creature sprung from the waters, stimulating the imagination at the heart of the city. Musy is a sculptor who trained in Geneva. His work is mainly developed in the field of abstraction.
Article commissioned by P3Art
Notice: Séverine Fromaigeat, translation: Matthew Cunningham