Street furniture, public sculpture, or monument? - Mathieu Husser

In 2012 Husser questions consumed ruins from the industrial era. Walking around Valenciennes, the artist has found a series of elements whose function disappeared alongside the modern project – those insignificant structures which have merged into the environment due to their constant discrete presence, kinds of stone or concrete bollards stuck in the streets.

These modest shapes have gone through the ages, first forgotten, then met only with indifference as they acquired years’-worth of patina. This street furniture, whose function was probably linked to traffic control, is for the artist a sort of fossilized element, a symbol, a site of memory. He has thus chosen to excise these shapes and to reproduce them at the average size of the commemorative monuments spread evenly throughout Valenciennes. Turning them into imposing sculptures, the artist further highlights the indifference they provoke. Street furniture, public sculpture, or monument?

For more information about the artist matthieu-husser.com