Arts in the open add color to a busy city, especially round a hasty rail road station. At Place du Havre, a pile clocks tells you when the trains departure. Or so you would think.
‘Accumulation’ is a sculpture by the late French artist Armand Pierre Fernandez, known as Arman. It’s placed outside the east entrance of Gare Saint-Lazare on the corner of Rue Saint-Lazare and Rue d’Amsterdam. A tall stack of disused clocks towers several feet up in the air.
Arman’s long list of works includes many sculptures similar to the clocks. Apparently he piled anything from scorpions, tools, music instruments and weapons.
However, the clock sculpture fits perfectly on the plaza in front of the busy Gare Saint-Lazare railroad and subway station. None of the hands show the same hour, like none of the trains arrive or departure at the same time.
If you’re in a hurry to catch a train, don’t look at the sculpture. Time stands still. Use your wrist watch instead, though there is another full functioning clock at Place du Havre.
Take a closer at the first picture of the scupture, and you know what time of day I was there.
I like receiving postcards, and I would very much like you to mail me one from your vacation.