June 6, 2025 – September 22, 2025
Richard Orlinski in Carcassonne
Five Monumental Sculptures Across the Historic City
Public Spaces Across Carcassonne, France
Richard Orlinski in Carcassonne placed five monumental sculptures at four distinct points across the city from June 6 through September 22, 2025. From the entrance to the medieval Cité to squares and gateways within the Bastide, the dispersed installation made each work part of a different architectural and pedestrian setting.
The project coincided with the inauguration of Carcassonne’s new Centre d’Art Contemporain and extended its opening program beyond the walls of the institution. Orlinski’s animals and human figure became markers within the city itself, connecting the new cultural venue with streets, gardens and monuments encountered in everyday movement.
Five Works Across Four Sites
The route began at one of Carcassonne’s most recognizable thresholds. A monumental Wild Kong stood at the Parvis du Prado near the entrance to the medieval Cité, placing Orlinski’s faceted contemporary figure against architecture shaped by centuries of defensive construction.
Within the lower city, the works assumed different roles. At Square Gambetta, a blue crocodile and a monumental yellow human figure occupied the same public garden, contrasting horizontal and vertical forms within a single site. An orange Origin Kong appeared near the Portail des Jacobins, while a white bear was installed among the trees of Square André-Chénier.
The separation between the works was central to the experience. Visitors did not encounter a collection arranged according to the controlled sequence of an exhibition gallery. Each sculpture first appeared as an individual intervention in the city, with differences in architecture, vegetation, scale and pedestrian activity changing the way its color and geometry were perceived.
Moving between the four sites gradually reconstructed the exhibition as a whole.
An Exhibition Beyond the New Art Center
The installation accompanied the opening of Carcassonne’s Centre d’Art Contemporain in June 2025. Rather than placing Orlinski’s sculptures inside the new institution, the project used the surrounding city as its exhibition territory.
That decision gave the works a particular relationship with Carcassonne. The city contains multiple historical layers, from the fortified medieval Cité to the ordered streets and civic squares of the Bastide Saint-Louis. Orlinski’s highly finished surfaces and enlarged figures introduced another visual layer without attempting to imitate the architecture around them.
The public route also served as an outward extension of the new center’s inaugural program. While exhibitions and projects took place inside the former Banque de France building, Orlinski’s sculptures created points of contact with audiences who might never have entered the institution itself.
The project was Richard Orlinski’s first exhibition in Carcassonne. By distributing five large-scale works rather than concentrating them at a single destination, the presentation linked contemporary sculpture to the act of navigating the city, allowing familiar landmarks to be reconsidered through temporary changes in scale, color and form.
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