The commission

Since 1995, the Law Department affiliated to the University of Lille has occupied the premises of a former industrial building in the heart of the working-class district of Moulins. The student population does not necessarily fit in well with that of the neighbourhood. Moreover, the Botanical Gardens, located near this part of the city, while being separated from the district by the ring road, is little used insofar as there is no precise signage mentioning its existence. The Dean of the faculty wished to work on the integration of his establishment into the social fabric and allow the different population groups to meet. In collaboration with the Young workers’ hostel (MAJT) and the Atelier populaire d'urbanisme, he wanted to involve an artist in order to redefine and enhance the urban and social fabric.

The artwork

In order to restructure and enhance the urban design, Mullican identified the many areas that could be redefined. Granite plaques (50 x 50 cm) were to mark out the route from the University to the Botanical Gardens. They present multiple universal signage elements, borrowed from the artist's vocabulary, or designed by the residents themselves. Five works - neon lights or sculptures – were to be located high up or on the ground, but always in significant places, reinforcing this first visual code. Finally, in the Botanical Gardens, a series of bas-reliefs were to mark out a path leading to the Lycée Baggio, a high school occupying the premises of the former Institut Diderot, where a last work marks out the route. This work, which carries another visual code, points to the symbolism of the encyclopaedic dimension of the knowledge claimed by the famous philosopher, a rational cosmogony open to the artist's subjectivity. Mullican creates a language of signs that carries different spatio-temporal registers capable of making people aware, individually and collectively, of the meaning of the relationship between signifier and signified, inherent in any system of communication.

The artist

From his first performances while still a student (California Institute of the Arts, 1971-1974), Mullican has focused on the theme of public space, real or fictional. A long period was necessary to develop a vocabulary of pictograms and colours conveyed by different media (banners, posters, granite, glass, marble, etc.)which, since the beginning of the 1980s, has featured strongly in his art practice. Thus, four identical circles juxtaposed in a square designate the elements, two highly stylized figures face to face are identified as angel and demon... Little by little, Mullican maps his "cosmology" by creating complex installations where different symbolic spaces confront each other within a trans-historical temporality.