Lieu dit 1976

This monumental sculpture by Michael Grossert was erected in 1976 in the immediate vicinity of the Heuwaage Viaduct. Completed in 1970 the oversized roadway made the automobile the main protagonist in an urban space now dominated by the infrastructure of vehicular traffic. The artist countered this affront by employing a colorful large format which established a prominent landmark offsetting the viaduct’s dissection of the neighborhood. The three-part environmental sculpture is made of polyester, whose seemingly unlimited possibilities were just beginning to be explored by artists at this time. Grossert employed a broad spectrum of forms often reminiscent of the familiar, but always eluding the categorial, a trait that is strengthened by the free application of color which is independent of form. Form and color function in the realm of the abstract, which after installation of the artwork triggered strong reactions including vandalism.

Michael Grossert (b. 1927 in Sursee CH; d. 2014 in Paris FR) lived and worked in Basel and Paris and is well-represented by many works in public space in Switzerland as well as in France. Primarily a sculptor, he often painted his sculptural works with expressive multiple colors, as for Lieu dit. He particularly valued using polyester resin, a material that was just beginning to be employed at the time, because it allowed for an almost unlimited range of forms. His artwork is situated in a realm in between the abstract and the organic, approaching supposedly recognizable forms in order to skillfully elude any ultimate figurative categorization.