Cardiff Welcomes New Icon for City

One of the most innovative sculptures in the country is set to come to St David’s in Cardiff. The 25 metre sculpture, called Alliance, is tipped to become an icon for the whole city and installation will begin on Monday (November 16).

Alliance was created by artist Jean-Bernard Metais to be a key landmark for the city and will be installed between the new Cardiff library and St David’s. The sculpture consists of a large stainless steel and enamelled metal arrow column and circular hoop which seem to balance in the air. The circle is filled with a liquid which will have a phosphorus glow at night and rises and falls with the movement of the tides.

Neil Carron, project director for St David’s, said: “We wanted this piece of art to be something unlike anything Cardiff has seen before and something the people of the city can be proud of. Alliance is a striking sculpture and will have a strong presence and we believe it will become an iconic symbol that will represent the city on a national and even international level.

“We have invested £1.5m in a public art programme for the city of Cardiff as part of the St David’s development and Alliance is the pinnacle of it all.

“St David’s is a project for the future of the city and we wanted a modern piece of artwork to reflect this exciting transformation.”

At night, projectors installed within the arrow will project words in Welsh and English on to the ground by Cardiff-based writer Peter Finch. The text will play on the word Cardiff from its urban history and the present day. There are also stainless steel letters engraved in the stonework surrounding the sculpture.

Alliance will only touch the ground in three pin-pointed places and extensive foundations three metres deep have already been laid. The sculpture will be set in place next week by a French installation team along with artist Jean-Bernard Metais. The sculpture will need three articulated lorries to bring it into the city centre with cranes being brought in to lift the pieces into place.

The ‘spike’ will arrive first thing on Monday morning to be installed with the hoop being brought in on Wednesday and lifted up adjacent to the library. The full installation of the sculpture, which includes the lighting and projection systems are set to be completed within two weeks.

The monumental sculpture was commissioned following a national competition to find the right piece of artwork that would fit well within the city and become a new landmark. A total of 120 responses were received from artists across the globe with just five artists shortlisted for the opportunity. Jean-Bernard Metais’ Alliance was eventually chosen for the task.

Wiard Sterk, executive director for Safle arts agency, said: “Jean-Bernard Metais was selected because his response stood out as the best. Alliance has the required scale which was necessary due to its location between the prominent library building and John Lewis.

“We were impressed by his exciting approach using different materials, including liquid, and that it will have a different appearance by day and by night. It will really bring the area to life.

“The tidal movement within the sculpture links back to Cardiff’s historic past, when the sea came up as far as The Hayes.

“Cardiff is fast becoming a world class destination and we wanted this artwork – and all others in the programme – to also be world class. It is a coup for Cardiff to be home to a sculpture by someone like Metais who is globally recognised in the art field and enhances the city as a cultural destination.”

Jean-Bernard Metais has been creating city-specific artworks for locations around the world for 25 years. In the year 2000, more than three million people came to see his monumental piece Eclipse in the Parisian park Le Jardin des Plantes.
He said: “Good public art is like a door to the senses that makes the entire space, the place and the people in it resonate together. It's an attempt to create a sensorial and poetic connection between a place and its inhabitants.”

Cardiff Council leader, Rodney Berman, said: "This sculpture will really complement the history of The Hayes on one side and the new development, including Cardiff Library, on the other. “Alliance is an outstanding piece of public art that cannot be missed and will communicate visual images of words bilingually, which I'm sure will become an instantly recognisable landmark, and hopefully a place where people will not only congregate, but use as a place to meet and enjoy the full experience of the city.

"An important part of the work by the St David's Partnership has gone towards improving and enhancing public spaces in the city centre. New open spaces, paving, seating, lighting, tree planting and public art which when combined with the investment made by the Council will make Cardiff a better place to visit and to live in.”

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