alex da corte’s giant kermit the frog lands in place vendôme during art basel paris

inflatable kermit the frog to occupy place vendôme

The monumental green figure of Kermit the Frog takes flight above the stately facades of Place Vendôme as part of the Art Basel Paris Public Program. Until October 26th, 2025, Alex Da Corte‘s artwork transforms the historic square into an unlikely stage for a scene of comic melancholy. Presented by Sadie Coles HQ, the project takes the form of an enormous helium-filled inflatable, a towering, 19.75-meter-long effigy of the beloved Muppet icon.

alex da corte turns a parade mishap into a study of resilience

The American-Venezuelan artist’s installation revisits an episode from the 1991 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, when a Kermit balloon snagged on a tree branch and tore open mid-parade, slumping half-deflated as the celebration continued beneath it. For Da Corte, this strange, fleeting moment became a metaphor for exhaustion, resilience, and the dissonant cheer that often masks collective anxiety. ‘Since only the head gets torn, only a part deflates,’ he explains. ‘It’s between lives, between states.’ Beneath the floating sculpture, a group of smiling performers dressed as Kermit, one possibly the artist himself, keeps the facade of optimism alive, ‘reminding us of the charade,’ Da Corte says. ‘Their only task is to keep smiling and keep it moving. You don’t know who’ll be watching, but we can’t show on our faces the terror in our minds if we know the balloon is failing.’

a modernist echo in green as part of art basel paris 2025

Officially titled Kermit the Frog, Even, in sly reference to Marcel Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (1915–1923), Da Corte’s Kermit the Frog, Even combines American pop iconography with the language of modernist art history. Between humor and pathos, the piece suspends its protagonist in a perpetual moment of defeat, exposing the vulnerability that underpins mass-produced optimism. ‘My interest in Kermit has been this ”It’s not easy being green” thing,’ the artist notes. ‘On one hand, green means green energy, being conscious of the environment; on the other, there’s also the sense of being an alien, being marginalized, and that hardship. Here we see Kermit wearing it plainly on his face—the facade drops when the camera isn’t focused on you.’

In Kermit the Frog, Even, that joy becomes bittersweet, stretched thin like the green nylon skin of the balloon itself. The work’s scale and visibility turn Place Vendôme, a site synonymous with French grandeur, into a stage for an American existential fable.

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project info:

name: Kermit the Frog, Even

artist: Alex Da Corte

location: Place Vendôme, Paris, France

event: Art Basel Paris 2025 Public Program

presented by: Sadie Coles HQ

dates: October 20th–26th, 2025