An article by Thomas Lapointe / 28 January 2019
[« The Eyes of the Sky », a work of land art by Antoine Grumbach, was launched on 25 January 2019 at Villeneuve-sous-Dammartin (77), a site where ‘valorisation’ or upcycling is done by ECT, the project’s sponsor. Excavated soil, a quarter of which comes from the construction sites of the Grand Paris Express, will make up the raw material of the work.
This land art project, which lies somewhere between « metropolitan art » and « aerial art », is being created by ECT from the imagination of architect and town planner Antoine Grumbach. The site covers 320 acres. Snowy when I visited it, it is right in line with the runways of the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport. It’s an immense project of rural redevelopment, punctuated by the passing of trucks and overflights of aircraft. It is intended as an icon for the Olympic Games and Paralympics of Paris 2024, and as a « great place for leisure », as Antoine Grumbach said on the launch day of the project, Friday 25 January 2019 (*).
The land art project, which lies between « metropolitan art » » and « aerial art », being created by ECT from the imagination of architect and town planner Antoine Grumbach, covers 320 acres. ©Antoine Grumbach
Made up entirely of excavated soil, the site at Villeneuve-sous-Dammartin has an area of 320 acres and is 100 feet high. By way of comparison with Paris landmarks, that would mean a perimeter extending from the Square Court of the Louvre to the Place de la Concorde, on which will be placed the two Eyes of the project, each 400 yards long.]
