Jonathan Sobel, a 2021 graduate of Beaux-Arts de Paris (Joann Sfar and Philippe Renault studios), will dress the Luxor Obelisk at Place de la Concorde during its restoration carried out as part of the Ministry of Culture's 2022 celebration of the bicentenary of Champollion's deciphering of hieroglyphics.
In partnership with Beaux-Arts de Paris, Kärcher and the Ile-de-France Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (DRAC) have launched a call for projects from students and young graduates, to imagine the future decoration of the tarpaulin. Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, Minister of Culture, selected Jonathan Sobel's project.
A recent graduate of Beaux-Arts de Paris, Jonathan Sobel created a yellow (Egyptian sun) and grey (Parisian sky) monolith presenting the effigies of Ramses II, Mehemet Ali, Charles X and Champollion, 4 great men linked to the creation and destiny of the monument, as if silk-screened in a material revealing to the attentive observer shapes and characters that are so many clues to this history. The project is reproduced on a large scale on the monument, 32 meters high and 14 meters wide, a monumental creation to signal a major restoration project on a highly symbolic historical monument, to be discovered on the Place de la Concorde, Paris 8e.
