ROUEN.- For the festival Rouen Impressionnée, the city of Rouen asked Arne Quinze to create an installation,
Camille, on the Boieldieu bridge in the center of Rouen.
When I visited Rouen and got to see the Boieldieu bridge for the first time, I immediately understood the bridge had to generate social interaction. My installations are all about bringing people back together and connecting them. This public art installation for the bridge over the Seine has the same aim. Inhabitants from the left side will meet inhabitants from the right side underneath the entangled wooden slats. The sculpture is created to evoke emotion and to spark conversation.
This installation (metal, concrete, fluorescent paint and wood) is going to be 120 meters long, between 6 and 20 meters high and contains 45 kilometres of wood. Eighteen concrete foots carry the weight of the installation, which weights 110 ton in total.
The name Camille is a tribute to Camille Pissaro who painted the bridge several times. It is also a reference to Claude Monet's wife, Camille.
Arne Quinze also presents twenty-one new works based on the Water Lilies Claude Monet painted in the backyard of his home in Giverny, in LAbbatiale Saint-Ouen. The first time Arne Quinze laid his eyes on these paintings of Monet he was blown away by the theme, scale, use of colours and the light effects. Although Quinze still paints with his severe brush strikes and splatters, a certain serenity is visible in his new works.
The model of Camille is exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in Rouen.