françois abélanet: quoi croire optical illusion land art

‘qui croire’ (‘who to believe?’), a work of land art by françois abélanet, appears like a sphere when viewed at the proper angle, but it is really a 1500 square meter sprawling installation all media courtesy of paris city hall

‘qui croire?’ (‘who to believe?’), a work of land art by french artist françois abélanet, is an 3-dimensional anamorphosis, a sprawling mass of grass of sand that appears when viewed at the proper angle as though it were a large sphere. the installation can be experienced in front of the steps of paris’s city hall through july 15th, in the center of a garden dedicated to urban trees.

‘qui croire’ spans 100 meters in length, requiring 1200 square meters of lawn, 300 square meters of the coverplant sedum, and 650 cubic meters of sand and straw for its production. about ninety individuals assisted in installing the work over five days.

the site of the piece makes it a natural convergence point across nature and city, and the plant and human worlds. abélanet states: ‘we live in a world where one hears the debates of ecologists, scientists, manufacturers… I simply wanted to note the problem of the tree and invite people to question the place that it, nature, and the environment have in their lives.‘

side view of the work, revealing its actual shape