The route through the Grand Hall of Plaster Casts is particularly striking. Abakanowicz’s headless silhouettes, arranged like a silent army, respond to the verticality of Bourdelle’s statues. These truncated bodies speak of the human condition, of the individual lost within the mass, of the vulnerability of the human being in the face of dark forces. One does not merely observe these sculptures; one experiences them. They confront us with our own finitude through an archaic, overwhelming power.
Yet beyond this monumental confrontation, the exhibition reveals a more intimate and delicate facet through her works on paper. Here, the gesture becomes lighter, almost calligraphic. Her drawings and inks are not simple sketches, but explorations of growth and of the living world. One can discern networks of roots, cellular blooms, and veins that celebrate the very structure of nature. There is great tenderness in these lines, a desire to understand how life organizes itself and stubbornly insists on coming into being.
