When you think about Nice in the South of France, you immediately envisage classic Provençal buildings but standing commandingly on Promenade des Arts you will find a 28 m modernistic almost alien looking building called “La Tete Carreè [the Squared Head]. This genius sculpture, also known as “Thinking Inside the Box” is the mastermind of artist Sacha Sosno (1937 – 2013), who in collaboration with architects Francis Chapus and Yves Bayard were given the task to house the Administrative Office of the Louis Nucera Library. Sacha designed a 16 cm³ cube that would rest on a bust. The design also pushed the boundaries of construction and the building was made entirely out of aluminium using techniques that shipwrights use to build boats. On its inauguration in 2002, it was the first inhabited monumental sculpture in the world.
Sacha Sosno whose art has being described as “The Art of Obliteration”, where sculptures either have quirky voids or solids in the most unusual places, evoking one’s imagination. “I only do 50% of the work; other people have to finish creating the sculpture”. Never has this been truer as this metaphoric sculpture teasingly tells its citizens that the knowledge lies within. At night they even play with the internal lighting as if the building is processing thoughts. Makes you think!
