Saverne. A seven-meter-tall alpaca in the city center

From the top of his scaffolding, Julien Voarick, nail gun in hand, took great pleasure in letting the mystery hover over passers-by intrigued by the wooden structure rising behind him. The Eiffel Tower? A giraffe? A unicorn? ... Ideas flew, but it was indeed the outline of an alpaca that took shape before the eyes of the people of Saverne during the second week of June. A monumental and collaborative work created by three resident artists of the Récollets cloister , Julien Voarick, Pierre Mallo and Emmanuel Sanz and installed on the occasion of the Blue Alpacas festival (from Thursday 17 to Saturday 19 July).

It took 3,000 pieces of wood, 25,000 nails, a fair amount of elbow grease, and some sunburn to complete this structure, which is nearly seven meters high. An idea that germinated in the mind of Julien Voarick , a multidisciplinary artist whom his colleague, Pierre Mallo, defines as someone who has "an idea a day and, unlike 90% of people, realizes them." He is a painter, but he was immediately excited, even involved in the project. "Doing a residency means having the privacy of your studio while also getting out of your comfort zone," he analyzes.

Offered voluntarily to the town hall, the latter provided the wood needed for its creation. "We went to see lumberjacks and sawyers in Buschwiller, to select diseased trees that couldn't be used," explains Julien Voarick. Stumps attacked by fungi prohibited for carpentry, but ideal for the creation of this agglomerate that is both light and dense. "These are rotten tree trunks that have become an animal," the artist muses.

After the festival, the structure is destined to be moved elsewhere. Its creator, however, dreams of a short trip: "I would like it to go graze in the garden of the Château de Rohan."