2016 edition, Permanent art work
Nantes, Piscine Léo-Lagrange
Mes tripes sont des poissons d’argent
Julien Salaud

Mes tripes sont des poissons d’argent (“My guts are silverfish”) hangs high above an indoor swimming pool built in the late 60s. Due to ongoing health restrictions, the bleachers are still closed to the public. The work, however, can still be seen enjoyed whilst swimming.

An immaculate white, human-sized character stands next to a diving platform. Its body is covered in a thin, translucent membrane, and from its stomach spill out hundreds of silverfish. Silurus, eels, carps, and roach fish are also suspended above the water and move in unison, as if swept up in a current. They then swim through the air before reuniting to create a new, giant fish.

In this watery universe, man meets animal, and air and water become one: the metamorphosis of this character into an aquatic creature is evocative of a baptism, or the birth of a belief. Julien Salaud transports visitors to magical waters where the precious beauty of these symbiotic beings “owes more to the irrationality of a legend to the morality of a fable.”

Julien Salaud, Mes tripes sont des poissons d'argent