Anish Kapoor Leviathan Installation in Paris

I went to see the Anish Kapoor sculpture called Monumenta 2011-Leviathan. It was specially created to fit in the enormous space of Le Grand Palais, which is one of the two palaces especially built for the Paris Exposion Universelle of 1900 (the Eiffel Tower was also created for that event).

This is how designboom announced the installation

each year the french ministry of culture and communication invites a leading artist to create a work that responds to the exceptional architectural space of the grand palais in paris. the sheer monumental scale of the building provided the inspiration for a big idea: monumenta.

this year, indian-born, british-based artist anish kapoor created a temporary, site-specific installation inside the nave of the glass-domed hall. the space was originally unveiled at the 1900 universal exhibition.for its fourth edition, after guest artists anselm kiefer, richard serra and christian boltanski, it has been the turn of anish kapoor to meet the challenge with a brand new work for the 13,500 m2 space.

I am not going to comment on the piece other than to say that I have enormous respect for an artist who can conceive such a giant sculpture: it is multifaceted and multidimensional and needs to be experienced.

I am just going to juxtapose how various publications attempted to convey the main point of the installation in their headlines.

Here is the Time and the American functionalism:

The artist erects an enormous inflatable piece inside the Grand Palais.

Here is the Telegraph and the British functionalism

Anish Kapoor's Monumenta sculpture alludes to the idea of the cathedral: the body as living, breathing sacred space.

 Here is Daily Mail and the British working class discourse revue et corrigé par Murdoch:

The next big thing: Giant PVC sculpture stuns the Paris arts scene

Don't be alarmed! This strange blob in the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysees is not some alien creature from the Paris sewers mulching everything in its path

And here is The Guardian and the British working class discourse by Gramscian organic intellectuals of art as politics:

Anish Kapoor dedicates Leviathan sculpture to Ai Weiwei

I hate post-modernity. With a passion.