Wim Delvoye creates a statue for Paris

13/10/2017

The Belgian artist Wim Delvoye has designed and made a statue of François Arago. The sculpture of this French physicist, astronomer and politician is on show in the garden of the Paris Observatory.

The bronze sculpture, measuring 2.50 metres high, is in the form of a spiral. Delvoye believes its wavy and curved style to symbolise the light waves discovered by Arago.

There has already been a statue of François Arago in Paris, but this was melted down for the war industry by the German occupation during the Second World War. 75 years later, an independent jury from the art and science world decided on Wim Delvoye as the best choice to immortalise Arago.

Wim Delvoye (born in 1965) belongs to the circle of contemporary artists who are also known beyond the Belgian borders. His most famous works include the tattooed pigs, the towers and vehicles in Corten steel and the Cloaca, a machine imitating the human digestive system.