Sunrise over the Takis Basin
Photographer: © Sebastien Desnoulez
January 2020 – La Défense, Paris, France
The photo offers a striking vision of Paris’s La Défense district at sunrise, where the brilliance of glass and concrete mingle with the soft morning light.
This imposing business district, the largest in Europe, is a veritable open-air museum, where contemporary art blends harmoniously with modern architecture.
In this composition against the light, in the heart of the historic axis, stands the emblematic work of Greek sculptor Panayotis Vassilakis, also known as Takis.
On a basin, 49 metal frame stand proudly, their ends adorned with geometric shapes which, although normally colored, here appear in black, accentuating the effect of the backlighting by being reflected in the water.
These “signals”, as Takis calls them, evoke an attempt to capture an invisible energy, a cosmic mystery that defies our understanding.
In the dawning light of sunrise, these metal structures stand out in sharp shadows, creating an atmosphere both mysterious and captivating.