All the young dudes, Neal Beggs, 2012

Work produced by the Domaine de Chamarande

For his totem All the Young Dudes 1914-18, the artist took the title of a David Bowie song written for Mott The Hoople in 1972, which speaks of solidarity between the discontented and evokes a fictitious end of the world. The totem pole, divided into 4 concrete blocks set into a post bearing the words "All/the/Young/Dudes", is reminiscent of a road sign, the tapered edges of which indicate a direction to follow. But placed so close to the ground, they also evoke grave markers, and the title of a rock'n'roll song becomes an epitaph or dedication. With this sculpture, Neal Beggs pays tribute to the young men who died in the 1914-18 war (60% of the 10 million men who died on the front were aged between 20 and 30). The two pieces are linked by their historical references: the First World War and its dead, and the Second World War and the reconstruction that followed.

Text by Roma Lambert