Go to main menu Grand Paris Express Greater Paris Society Info area Research Main content Menu You are here Home › The human and plant footprints of La Courneuve Six-Routes station The human and plant footprints of La Courneuve Six-Routes station CULTURE AND CREATION, ARCHITECTURE 09.11.2021 TO TO Each of the 68 stations of the new metro will host a lasting work of art, in harmony with the architecture of the place. We followed the work of plastic artist Duy Anh Nhan Duc, whose work Empreinte will mark the La Courneuve Six-Routes station. © Société du Grand Paris / Julie Bourges / Duy Anh Nhan Duc Do you know the Georges-Valbon departmental park ? Located in La Courneuve, in Seine-Saint-Denis, this huge green lung is larger than Central Park in New York. This beautifully hilly park now offers the bucolic spectacle of geese running after the crusts of chopsticks thrown by the children. A tranquility far from the effervescence that reigned in this place a few weeks earlier, when the lawn hosted the concerts and speeches of the Fête de l'Humanité for a final edition. With the future La Courneuve Six-Routes station , this plant setting of some 400 hectares will finally be within the reach of all Ile-de-France residents. LINES TO FORGE A LINK BETWEEN NATURE AND MAN Cet automne, des promeneurs ont remarqué une présence inhabituelle. Des médiateurs habillés de gilets de chantier estampillés « Grand Paris Express » allaient à la rencontre des Courneuviens prélever leurs lignes de la main. À l’origine de cette initiative, organisée avec la complicité du Département de Seine-Saint-Denis et de la Ville de La Courneuve, on trouve l’artiste Duy Anh Nhan Duc qui travaille en tandem avec les architectes de la gare Pascale Dalix et Frédéric Chartier. Des enfants enthousiastes pour donner leurs lignes de vie © Société du Grand Paris / Julie Bourges It is no coincidence that the Société du Grand Paris has selected the plastic artist Duy Anh Nhan Duc. The artist's creative universe is populated with plants, in harmony with the nearby park and the architecture of the station. He can spend a day delicately untangling the clover plants so as not to pull out the roots. " In my work, I try to forge a link between nature and Man ," the artist develops. I looked for how to create this link between nature and the users of the new metro. " To accompany the descent of users to the quays, Duy Anh Nhan Duc poetically evokes contact with the underground and the roots that irrigate it. The roots which represent an essential component in a department concentrating a great cultural diversity. The symbol unifying nature and humans then seemed obvious to him. “ This link would be made through the hand, the means of reaching out to the other. And each person has their identity card drawn in the palm of their hand ”. Thus was born the idea of running roots in the station, inspired by the lifelines of walkers in the park. The artist is originally from Asia where “it's very serious, the lines follow the trajectories of life, it has nothing to do with fortune tellers or crystal balls… ” This is the reason why the mediators walk the alleys of the park, exchanging with more than 200 participants. Before going to meet 160 students from the Louise-Michel school, also invited to play the game by giving their hand lines. These lines of future travelers, with different trajectories, will intertwine on the ceiling of the station, like roots. " A work lives better when it has interacted with the public ," says Duy Anh Nhan Duc. When you make a sculpture, you impose your presence. I first wanted to create a link… ” SLICES OF LIFE IN AN EMBLEMATIC PARK A local resident who tells the mediators about her links with the park. © Société du Grand Paris / Julie Bourges In the park, the public seems won over by the approach outlined by the mediators. With their hands raised, the children are eager to record their lines. Little Liam, three years old, does not hesitate to extend his little hand. On lunch break, Marjorie exclaims: " I'm going to be a star, wait until I call my agent before signing!" Simone hesitates, " they are old, my hands ", before finally agreeing to hold them out to offer her lines to the future station. Certains habitués qui connaissent le parc sous toutes ses coutures ne sont pas avares d’anecdotes que les médiateurs prennent le soin de noter. Jean-Claude raconte qu’Anémone et Michel Galabru se produisaient jadis ici, au théâtre en plein air. Il assure qu’un singe se serait échappé trois jours tandis qu’une hyène aurait erré ici plusieurs années. D’autres abondent en récits plus personnels, les premiers pas de leurs enfants, les parties de luge en hiver à l’aide de sacs plastiques. Autant de tranches de vie et tant de promenades. Claude l’assure, une balade aller-retour dans le parc peut s’étirer sur 2h30. Les contacts de chacun des participants sont conservés afin que Duy Anh Nhan Duc puisse pousser plus loin leur portrait et retranscrire leurs souvenirs liés à ce lieu emblématique. DEUX LIGNES DE LA MAIN, DEUX LIGNES DE MÉTRO The artist in front of one of his works. © Société du Grand Paris / Julie Bourges / Duy Anh Nhan Duc Duy Anh Nhan Duc, as a child, grew up near Georges-Valbon, which was like his garden. To create his work, he returns to it again, climbs in the wildest spaces of the park, in small wastelands or on heights where the grass is never mowed. He takes plants or grasses there, the dandelion being his favorite seed. These plants will be integrated into the glass walls of the mezzanine of the future station, where lighting will enhance their beauty. But far from the artist the idea of transforming the station into a museum of natural sciences. « On parle tout le temps de la perte de la biodiversité, de préservation des espaces verts, mais il est impossible de se connecter à la nature sans connaître le plaisir de marcher pieds nus dans l’herbe, s’anime-t-il. Je veux créer des œuvres où parents et grands-parents aient une expérience sensible et pas uniquement visuelle. » Une invitation lancée aux adultes pour redécouvrir le plaisir simple des enfants, qui se lient instinctivement à la nature en montant aux arbres ou en comptant les feuilles de trèfles. Des racines inspirées des lignes de vie © Société du Grand Paris / Julie Bourges / Duy Anh Nhan Duc As we leave the artist, a question burns our lips. What does Duy Anh Nhan Duc read in his own life lines? Unusual thing, only two lines are drawn in the hollow of the left hand. “ I am told that my lifeline and my work line are one, very long and very clear. My work will be my life! It strengthened me so that I continue on this artistic path . »Is it a coincidence? Two lines of the Grand Paris Express, 16 and 17 , will pass through La Courneuve Six-routes ... While waiting for the commissioning of the La Courneuve Six-Routes station, we can discover the work of Duy Anh Nhan Duc at the Guimet museum , in Paris, from November 2021 to deviating from 2022. 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