Olivier Grossetête, an internationally renowned artist from Marseille, is one of the most original creators of public and communal art. He has erected his monumental cardboard buildings in the cities of five continents, engaging a million onlookers in the construction and subsequent tearing down of almost two hundred box-constructs.
The imposing buildings – towers, churches or railway stations – are built by passers-by. It takes no more than a handful of voluntary builders to start putting the carefully designed components in their places, but as the number of layers grows, more and more helping hands are required, and often there are a hundred volunteers at work before the structure is completed. Sometimes as tall as 25 metres, a construction may comprise 1500 cardboard elements, with a combined weight of 1.5 tons.