Communication concerning an object has never previously been a key to read the project. The poster announcing new scenography of the Arc de Triomphe should allow for a rapid interpretation of intention: to decipher a symbol, to change the symbolism from the military point of view to the potential for peace. This was the objective of a permanent installation: to treat the monument as a subject, while researching its monumentality, references and origin, as well as its function as a solely symbolic monument: a national monument presenting a nation but through the filter of a war. Then to confront the object with the reality of a specific period of time: our period, with its preference for such values as peace, which has been the monument’s ecosystem for over sixty years.

When I learned that it meant covering La Concorde with posters, the opportunity was too great to miss and I suggested, stepping out of my role concerning communication, two posters which I imagined would hang opposite each other and be divided by the rails on two opposite sides of the Concorde station, line no. 1. Of course history decided differently; the English word “WAR”, I was told, created a problem. But the subject has remained and still persecutes the monument and its communication, a witness of doubt which was not intended, but which shows in a mission of the national monument: “between war and peace”.

player: Lola Duval

Pondering over the value and symbolic appropriateness of a monument built during a historical period especially filled with wars, we start to measure the relation between the mass and the symbol – of a great triumph. It is essential not to cover historical evidence and make history more readable; it is also necessary to make people understand that changes incline the planet (tourists from the whole world much more than the local inhabitants) to thump out of joy for victorious army returns which fortunately became the ultimate tribute to the anonymous victims, as it was earlier understood that there is no triumph over war: the war has to be survived.

The objective here is to create an Arch of Celebration far away from a gate, without a wall and without a wing door, which has to be passed without lifting one’s head. The Arch of Celebration will not be an obstacle to view; it is going to be the opposite of a landmark which proudly allows for recognition of city crossings, rather an emptiness, a concave monument, maybe just for paying tribute to the anonymous and unintentionally absent. They are not the ones who left to defend the revolution in 1792 following Rude’s La Marseillaise. They are not less dead, by an accident or an incident, and they are going to remain the anonymous and mute majority of past, present and future wars until the end.
This place calls for celebration because each moment when we celebrate is a moment when we do not conduct wars.