This Valentine’s Day Parisians are invited to join in embrace underneath a monumental revolving heart-shaped sculpture at the Porte de Clingancourt metro station. Coeur de Paris, a permanent installation by the Portugese artist Joana Vasconcelos, was created as part of a distinctly less-than-romantic project—the extension of the T3 tram line. But Vasconcelos’s response is sure to warm the hearts of the neighbourhood’s residents of the city's 18th arrondisement.
The work is composed of 4000 tiles, produced and painted manually at the 100-year-old factory Viúva Lamego in Lisbon, and contains lights which turn on and off to the rhythm of a beating heart. The eye-catching nature of the installation will provide a landmark for the surrounding area, serving as a beacon of hope to its loved-up denizens— or an obnoxious symbol of one’s single-status. The work will be inaugurated tonight by the deputy mayor for culture Christophe Girard, providing a sentimental, if somewhat unsubtle reminder that when it comes to matters of romance, Paris reigns supreme.
