Huang Yong Ping - Empires for Monumenta 2016

Sino French artist Huang Yong Ping has surpassed himself with his majestic gigantic installation for Monumenta in Paris's iconic turn of the century glass and ironwork pavilion, the Grand Palais.

300 freight containers, a 130 ton steel snake skeleton, Napoleon's bicorn hat (50 times bigger) , and a mobile gantry crane fill the 35 metre high nave.

On entering the Grand Palais the spectator is wowed by the enormity of the project. It's hard to imagine a man as slight as Huang Yong Ping creating such a humongous art-work.

'Empires' forms a landscape made up of eight stacks of freight containers and a metal snake skeleton that ' unfurls like mist between mountains', said Huang Yong Ping. The Napoleonic bicorn hat sits on the arch formed by 2 stacks of containers on a north south axis that passes through the Invalides, Napoleon's last resting place.

Conflict, power, globalisation, destruction and resurrection are all evoked in this complex artwork.

The snake's open mouth is ready to gobble anything up and also an excellent selfie opportunity.

The composition of 'Empires' mirrors the structure of the nave and it's iron curves which are testament to the achievement of the industrial revolution .

Huang Yong Ping was born in China in 1954 and settled in France in 1989- the year of the Tien an Men massacre. He created a group of post modernist artists in Xiamen in 1986 known as Xiamen Dada. Most of his work is monumental in scale.

A fantastic view of the quasi - totality of the Monumenta installation can be seen from the top of the monumental staircase in the centre of the Grand Palais.

The exhibition ends June 18. Catch this spectacular show if you can!

中法艺术家黄永砯，在法国巴黎的大型装置新作“帝国”，是其为法国重要装置艺术项目“Monumenta”委约创作的最新装置作品。

300个集装箱的重量，130吨钢铁，组成了巨型海蛇的骨架。还有拿破仑的帽子（扩大50倍），展示在高35米的圆顶玻璃中殿‘Nave’当中。

刚刚进入大殿，人们就会为这一大作不禁赞叹。你很难想象，黄永砯可以创造出这样一个巨大的艺术作品。

“‘帝国’为主题的大型装置作品，由一个8座岛屿造型的彩色建筑结构为主题，贯通其中的是一个250米长的巨型海蛇骨架。”黄永砯说到。拿破仑的帽子就在两个岛屿的顶上，贯通南北轴，标志着拿破仑一生中最后的安息之地。

冲突、权利、全球化、破坏、复活，这些概念错综复杂，组成了这样的艺术品。蛇的张口设计，仿佛随时准备吞噬猎物，同时也是观赏者极好的自拍角度。

‘帝国’的结构，展示了奴隶制的社会结构，同时也证明了工业革命的必要成就。

黄永砯1954年出生在中国。1989年，定居法国。1986年，他组织了一批厦门的后现代艺术家，成立了协会。他的主要作品都是类似此次展览一样的大型作品展览。

在纪念馆的最顶端，是俯瞰整个展览的绝佳位置。

此次展出截止到6月18日，如果有机会千万不要错过。