Milly-la-Forêt, already famous for its drawings of Cocteau
shelters some nuggets of contemporary art in its insulated forest.
Specially the monumental Cyclop of the Swiss artist Jean
Tinguely. This alive work is spectacular as well by its
dimensions as by its design. Before discovering this iron King-Kong,
one hears it low in the forest, in metal slappings, insistent tinklings
and acid squeakings. It will take 20 years for the artist to
build his dazzling Babel. Ten years of energy to assemble the 350 tons
of steel of the structure will introduce a new decade to complete the
unit. The sculptor offers his work to the France in 1987.
This Cyclop is a monumental silver head of 23 height meters, opening of
a single, luminous eye like a solar mirror. A toboggan as a
tongue, plunges in a small basin, its single ear listens to
stars. Inside this cranium giant, a constellation of metal gears
work in cerebral wheels, surrounded by metal balls which suggest the
stainless thoughts of this cortex in perpetual motion. Several
artists contributed to give birth to the animal. The wife of
Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle, equipped it with a mirror mosaic, two
compressions of César, an accumulation of Arman, an installation
of Soto, an immense measuring apparatus of Jean-Pierre Raynaud,
determine the unit. A beautiful tribute to the artists of the
recycling of the years 1970.
