To celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Aristide Denfert-Rochereau, said to be the “Lion of Belfort”, UTINAM proposes the installation of a monumental mechanical work of art.
Working on an automaton means coming face to face with the technical complexities which stand in the way of emotion.
After many years spent contemplating the animal form, in this case immobile, shaping its demeanor and the tension of its contours in order to give the illusion of a stealthy encounter, a fleeting movement, this collaboration with Philippe Lebru gave rise to a rich exchange on the “automaton” object, on the fascination it attracts, on the emotion produced by the spark of life that is mechanical movement.
The complexity of its movements led us towards the idea of a metallic skin.
Far from being a literal copy of the lion, the shaped sheet of brass will allow us to see the animal’s mechanical entrails, the complex rotations and transpositions, the glitter of the stainless steel and aluminium parts.
The fine brass skin which covers the structure allows us to identify the lion, its profile, and its charisma, all the while showcasing the mechanism’s ingenuity and complexity.
First steps…
A long fine-tuning process carried out by Utinam’s virtuoso watchmakers.
MANUFACTURE UTINAM
117 GRANDE RUE
25000 BESANÇON
