Jolimont
1993
A commission to 15 artists, one work for each station of Toulouse’s first metro line. The Jolimont station comes out of a hill, it is in the open air. The work must be in relation to the glass openings. I respond to this request thinking that the vision through the windows must not be obscured, each passenger getting off the train must be able to find their way immediately, see the weather. Moreover, no photograph seems to me to be able to withstand the daily glances of tens of thousands of passengers without wearing out. I decide to place coloured glass in the space of the double windows, a sort of large pieces of a vanished image, of which only these fragments would remain, and whose shapes are similar to parts of stained glass windows. One coloured glass in each window. I program a computer, following rules that I set, but I also introduce randomness. With each click, it suggests a composition for a group of windows. If I like it, I print it out. Then I combine these choices to decide on the shapes and sizes of glass for each window. I choose the colours. 16 windows per platform, plus the two large rosettes, plus the two windows in the ticket hall. The glasses are made at Saint-Gobain, a bonding of two sheets of coloured glass, then a cut with a pressurised water jet is made according to the drawings. By day the glass is visible from the inside and by night it is visible from the outside. I was also asked to draw the two grids that close the accesses to the platform at the end of the station.







