La ville blanche is installed in Parc René-Lévesque. Set between two bodies of water on a large stretch of land ending in a row of poplars, the artwork sublimates the landscape. Eight large steel trapezoids encircle a white granite column. The sculptural elements, arranged in concentric circles – forming a bull’s-eye if seen from above – are organized on geometrical principles. A metaphor for navigation and transition, the monumental work, which evokes an image of a moored ship, is an invitation to contemplation, play, and relaxation.

The work is also a tribute to passing time, like the film to which its title makes reference. Indeed, Fournelle was inspired by Alain Tanner’s 1983 movie Dans la ville blanche, about a sailor’s trip to Lisbon, where he experiences a city in which time seems to have been suspended.

La ville blanche was produced for the second Lachine Sculpture Symposium, “L’an II, Lachine, carrefour de l’art et de l’industrie,” an event organized on the edge of the Lachine Canal in the summer of 1986.