Artist Prune Nourry unveils 108 Venus statues in Saint-Denis

Artist Prune Nourry has opened her studio at the Saint-Denis Pleyel station near Paris to showcase 108 monumental Venus statues. The collection, titled ‘la terre qui m’est chair’, features sculptures in diverse colors ranging from black and white to ochre and red, intended to represent the diversity of women's bodies.

The project is one of 70 works commissioned by the Société des Grands Projets (SGP) to decorate the new stations of the Grand Paris Express metro lines. The statues are designed to be permanently installed on the walls of the station in 2027. Due to strict public safety regulations regarding weight, the artist utilized lightweight expanded concrete coated with a patina of 14 different earths and mineral pigments instead of bronze or raw earth.

Each statue contains hidden samples of soil provided by local women from Saint-Denis or from their places of origin, sometimes from across the Mediterranean. The station, designed by architect Kengo Kuma, will eventually serve approximately 200,000 daily passengers once the new metro lines are operational.