In 2008, a survey of the Place d'Armes pine (casuarina), located at the corner of rue Grimaldi, revealed signs of decay. Despite the means implemented to maintain it on site, the 140 year old tree must be felled in 2011. In order that this tree, which belongs to the collective memory of the communit...
In 2008, a survey of the Place d'Armes pine (casuarina), located at the corner of rue Grimaldi, revealed signs of decay. Despite the means implemented to maintain it on site, the 140 year old tree must be felled in 2011. In order that this tree, which belongs to the collective memory of the community, does not disappear completely, the Principality called upon the tree sculptor Marc Nucera, with the aim of turning this casuarina into a work of art. The 6-meter trunk was transformed into monumental wave-shaped benches that were reinstalled during the redevelopment of the Place d'Armes in 2012.
Born in 1966 in Châteaurenard, Marc Nucera is, in his words, a tree sculptor. As a farm worker, he discovered the work of Brancusi and was introduced to contemporary art by landscape architect Alain-David Idoux. He was inspired as much by Robert Smithson's topiary art and Land art as by Jean Arp and Louise Bourgeois. A connoisseur of the plant world, he metamorphoses living things by twisting, folding and playing with light on the material. With the help of his chainsaw, he cuts his forms and works on volumes, the base of which is the cylinder corresponding to the trunk of the tree. Since Cœurs d'arbres, in 1990, the artist has explored new forms such as twisted columns, female figures, benches, while giving new life to plants.
