NANTES.- Tadashi Kawamata has created in situ works worldwide, one of which is L’Observatoire in lavau-sur-loire, a permanent work and part of the Estuaire Nantes Saint-Nazaire collection.

Through his pieces, he tries to create or recreate the link between humans and places. his works are based on an in-depth study of a given site (history, geography, lifestyle) to which he offers the possibility of building a physical bridge between two entities. With every project, Tadashi Kawamata brings together an ephemeral community of builders (students, inhabitants, engineers, construction workers…) whom he integrates into his creative process. almost always ephemeral and made out of wood, his works can be said to leech off of existing architecture, growing out of its tiniest interstices, invading landscapes to better reveal them. Through the very simplicity of his fetish material (wood) and its infinite potential, he shines a light om the identity of these places, as well as the fragility of precariousness of the human world.

“I’ve never thought of my work in terms of categories, like sculpture or installation. That isn’t my aim.... I always say I’m “in-between”. I prefer that kind of loose judgement. I’m somewhere between architecture and sculpture, or the environment.”

For Nantes, Tadashi Kawamata desiged the Belvédère de l’Hermitage. This work is made entirely of wood, and opens onto a long, narrow footbridge that is slightly sloped and surrounded by high fences. in doing so, it offers a framed perspective of the sky and river. This rectilinear and stable path then extends without the fences and hangs, cantilevered above the cliff. With the feeling of vertigo at every step, visitors make their way towards the void and discover the unobstructed view of the city and river. literally inside the landscape, they see a chaotic mess of beams underneath the planking that clings to the side of the cliff and is reminiscent of the round, delicate shape of a swallow’s nest.

In order to blend with the landscape, Kawamata has chosen two types of wood: Bilinga, an exotic wood for the supporting structure, and pressure-treated grey larch for the deck, fencing and meshing. The footbridge is 2.8 metres wide and 36 metres long, 10 metres of which hang over the cliff almost 20 metres off the ground