Eva Jospin creates landscapes of forests and rocks, cut out of cardboard. Although extremely detailed, intricate and precise, her sculptures’ presence and dimensions have a monumental quality. Originally focused on a forest motif prior to 2010, her work now centers on rock, inspired by the concept of sediment.

 For the Jean Rieux station, serving a relatively densely populated residential area, the artist Eva Jospin has created Grottesco, a fictional landscape combining nature and archeology.

 Imagining that the construction of the underground system has revealed as yet undated archaeological remains (as has been the case in Rome, Athens and Sofia), the artist has considered the approach to be taken (destroying, protecting, moving, continuing to excavate), creating a triptych work of art, seemingly overwhelmed by vegetation and sediment, to showcase this fictitious stage of the excavation process. The uncovered form simultaneously resembles an opening, similar to a cave, and a kind of abandoned theater in which nature has taken over.

 The perfect addition to the station’s architecture, this artwork encourages viewers to imagine the scene for themselves. The artist has made a deliberate choice to create a work without symbolism, letting each user appropriate a fictional universe. Purely fictional, an open-ended dialogue between the architecture and the artwork is established: was the form already there? Was it found or added? Is it about memories of the past or the construction?

Manifesto is also working with Lek & Sowat to produce artwork for the Labège-Enova station.