In Lunel, the Pescalune statue has gone to get a makeover

Le plus dur : équilibrer l’œuvre avant de la déposer sur le camion. – Anne Cathala

L’œuvre de BenK, datant de 2006, s’offre une seconde jeunesse sous les mains de son créateur.

Let's not lie to ourselves: its location was far from unanimous as its silhouette was difficult to perceive in this environment at the start of the Gabriel-Péri course. But more than a reflection, the statue of Pescalune is indeed the symbol of the legend which unfailingly links the city to the fisherman of the star.

Moved a few meters away on her return

If most pass by it every day without even paying attention to it, take a look at it, "because we know it is there and we care about it& ;quot;, his kidnapping, this Tuesday, February 6 in the morning, caused a stir and raised some questions.

The handful of curious people who attended the operation got the scoop on the information: Le Pescalune is going to get a makeover during the work in the heart of the town. Not that the work of art has particularly suffered the ravages of time. But the municipality deemed it appropriate to restore its splendor while work is underway on Cours Péri. Or how to kill two birds with one stone, or even several, so that the work of art, 4 meters high and weighing 3.5 tonnes of reinforced concrete covered with resin and bronze, has been given a second lease of life since its creation and installation in 2006.

"18 years old, the age of majority and freedom", joked the artist BenK under whose hands Le Pescalune was born. Because the creator of the dreaming fisherman was there, this Tuesday morning, to ensure and supervise the separation of the base, the lifting and the transport of the statue. "The most difficult thing is to balance the work before assembling it and putting it on the truck, explained Thierry Engel, director deputy of the technical services of the town hall who closely followed the operations. Especially since she is leaving there permanently". Let sensitive souls change their minds before shedding their first tear: no, Le Pescalune is not disappearing from the city landscape. It will even be much better displayed in its future place

A mini-concrete plant instead

"It will be there, a few meters away,indicates Thierry Engel by hand, pointing to the space which connects the end of Place de la République to the beginning of Quai Voltaire. A reflection has even begun on its illumination so that it finally shines as it deserves", concludes the deputy director, while following the fisherman's strapping out of the corner of his eye. The same one who left, around 10 a.m., in the workshops of the City's technical center, chemin de la Terro D’Oc, which, for once, will be transformed into an artist's studio since it is there that, for several weeks, BenK will clean, restore, patina the character born from his imagination at the beginning of the 21st century.

As for the vacant space, "it will accommodate a temporary mini-concrete plant to avoid as much as possible the impact of mortar transport necessary for work in the city center", rejoices the deputy director of technical services. Kill two birds with one stone, we told you.

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