Big Stump, Stéphane Vigny, 2023

* Private area Chapelle Saint-Léger. Visible only during temporary exhibitions, guided tours or by appointment.

Big Stump is a monumental rustic sculpture reproducing the stump of a giant sequoia. The starting point for this project by artist Stéphane Vigny was the discovery of an archive illustration: the image shows the stump of a giant sequoia in California that has just been felled, on which several dozen people are dancing. In the book Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity in California (1862), a commentator of the time, James M. Hutchings, describes the following scene: "Incredible as it may seem, on this stump, on July 4, 1854, thirty-two persons began to dance four sets of cotillions at once, without any inconvenience; and beside them were musicians and spectators." Approximately 8 metres in diameter and 1 metre high, Big Stump was inaugurated on Sunday 18 June with a concert of baroque music (Ensemble Zéphyre) as part of the Quinzaine radieuse # 15. The sculpture will be used as a stage from time to time. Made with the help of rock mason Philippe Le Féron from Longcamp, the work was the subject of an introductory workshop on rustication.

THE VANDALS THEN DANCED UPON THE STUMP!
Text about the original sequoia that inspired the work