Our Shadows Waiting for Night

Christian Lapie brings powerful figures to life by sculpting tree trunks. Presented alone, in pairs, or in groups, these imposing creations suddenly appear in locations carefully chosen by the artist.

In Mulhouse, five of these colossal figures face each other on either side of a street, like monumental totems engaged in a silent but intense dialogue.

Each sculpture, though human in its small summit head, is ageless, faceless, limbless, and without a defined origin or culture. It thus embodies a universal figure, open to individual interpretation: some see in them a silent, almost spectral brutality, while others perceive them as benevolent guardians watching over the place.

The wood used and the posture of the sculptures, both rooted in the ground and reaching towards the sky, reinforce this deep connection with nature, evoking both grounding and elevation, like the surrounding trees.