Mirage

Mirage shows how monumental sculpture can command a space without filling it with mass.

At the centre of Jaume Plensa’s exhibition at Carré Sainte-Anne are Invisible Laura and Invisible Rui Rui. Created in 2018, the two stainless-steel mesh heads each measure approximately 650 × 400 × 500 centimetres. Suspended within the nave, they face one another across the former church.

Their open construction produces a constantly changing encounter. From some positions, the mesh lines gather into clearly defined faces. From others, the figures dissolve into the vaulted architecture, light and shadows around them. Visitors and surrounding artworks remain visible through their surfaces.

Curated by Numa Hambursin, Mirage was conceived in response to the building’s verticality and history. Works in alabaster and wood extend the exhibition’s consideration of the human figure, but the transparent heads establish its central spatial relationship.

Plensa’s sculptures do not replace the atmosphere of Carré Sainte-Anne. They reveal how a body can feel present through what it allows us to see beyond it.