Research project, Ivry-sur-Seine, 1911 / 2023-2025, work in progress, with the Galerie Fernand Léger, the contemporary art gallery of Ivry-sur-Seine, initiated in the context of the Public Art Triennial #3.
The continuation is shown at Galerie Fernand Léger in the exhibition Socles peu communs - Unusual Bases from April to June 2025.

In the Ivry-Port district at the Place de l’Insurrection d’Août 1944, there is an empty plinth with the inscription TRIBUTE TO WORK.
It was erected in 1911 for the sculpture of a iron worker, a puddler, a work by Charles Théodore Perron entitled Egregius Faber (The Excellent Worker).
The bronze was smelted in 1942 to produce ammunition.
The plaster original still exists and is on display at the Petit Palais museum in Paris.
This empty base with its inscription raises multiple questions.
I would like to ask these questions to the inhabitants of Ivry, women, men and children.
Through exchanges, actions and photo sessions, playing on different scales, I would like to invite them to interpret this plinth and give it meaning, to question the notion of work today.

Jakob Gautel, Paris, Summer 2023

The various photos have been taken by JG and by Ianna Andréadis, Bernard Bousquet, Galerie Fernand Léger, Quentin Gassiat, Jason Karaïndros, Cécile Rusterholz (Zaoum), Alexandra Sá, Filipe Vilas-Boas…