The chair as a piece of art
Michel Goulet has a particular affinity for the shared object, an object that is not art in itself but becomes a sculptural material. These are often small objects with no apparent value, fragile, chosen specifically to give strength to what surrounds them. These objects represent nothing other than themselves: they are simple things, whose use is known to everyone. Over the years, many domestic chairs have been moved from private spaces to public places. The term “domestic” is essential: these chairs, sometimes carrying an object or a word, sometimes simply witnesses of an exchanged glance, become participants in the encounter or signs of an absence.
The designers
Michel Goulet
Quebecois sculptor born in 1944, he is recognized as one of the leading figures of his generation. His work, included in numerous public and private collections, was the subject of a major retrospective at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 2004.
A specialist in public art, he has created more than seventy permanent works, some of which have become flagship pieces of public art, notably visible in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Lyon, and Le Havre. He regularly collaborates with poets, including François Massut, on projects that combine sculpture and poetry. In 2011, he designed a permanent sculpture in Charleville-Mézières, the birthplace of Arthur Rimbaud, in collaboration with Francophone poets. Starting in 2014, he installed seven works in Wallonia, in the city and province of Namur, as a tribute to Henri Michaux and contemporary Belgian and Quebecois poetry.
His work has been honored with numerous distinctions, including the Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas (1990), the Governor General’s Award of Canada (2008), and several honorary decorations, including the Order of Canada (2012) and the National Order of Quebec (2018). Michel Goulet is also a member of the Order of Montreal (2020) and a Companion of the Arts and Letters of Quebec (2024).
Alongside his sculptural work, he has developed a significant career in scenography since 1993. His first collaboration with director Denis Marleau, for Koltès’ Roberto Zucco, marked the beginning of a career celebrated on major theatre and opera stages in Canada and Europe: Opéra de Genève, Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in Montreal, Cour d’honneur of the Palais des Papes in Avignon… In 2011, he created the scenography for Agamemnon at the Comédie-Française, again with Denis Marleau.
François Massut
Born in 1979, François Massut grew up in Rimbaldie, near Charleville-Mézières. He lives between Paris, Charleville, and Sète. In 2007, he founded the collective Poésie is not dead, which explores the intersections between poetry and contemporary arts, in the spirit of experimental poetry and avant-garde movements (Dada, Fluxus, Situationism).
Since 2011, he has worked closely with Michel Goulet on several public art projects in France and Quebec, including Alchimie des ailleurs (2011, Charleville-Mézières) and La réception (2015, St-Georges de Beauce). In the Palais-Royal garden in Paris, they created Les Confidents (2016), Dentelles d’éternité (2019–2024), and Moment présents (2024). Upcoming projects include Dialogues (2024) and Cœur à cœur (planned for 2025). Winner of the Samuel de Champlain Prize in 2022, he co-directs the international experimental poetry journal DOC(K)S and has been a member of the collective Art Faber since its founding.
“I have adopted the chair, this familiar object: it is an object shaped like the body and it serves the body. It is difficult to feel exclusive ownership over something so universally shareable. It is mine the moment I occupy it, but if I leave it, someone else can claim it as their chair.”
From Idea to Work: patterns and trajectories
The Cité Internationale universitaire de Paris is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2025.
“The ambition of its founders was to create a school of human relations for peace by providing French and international students with high-quality housing and study conditions in a setting conducive to multicultural encounters and exchanges.” André Honnorat, founder of the Cité Internationale, expressed as early as 1919 the wish to create “a place where young people from all countries, at the age when lasting friendships are formed, can make contacts that allow them to know and appreciate each other.”
On the occasion of the centenary, France Mainville, director of the Maison des étudiants canadiens, envisioned a tribute to the journey undertaken by all the nations that have come together. She approached Quebecois sculptor Michel Goulet, known for numerous public works in Canada and beyond, and invited him to conceive a unifying and dynamic work to mark the event. The artist is particularly recognized for his emblematic chair-poems that have captured the imagination. Together with François Massut, founder of the collective Poésie is not dead, he has developed iconic works in France and Belgium linking poetry and public space.
With the president of the Fondation nationale Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, Jean-Marc Sauvé, supported by an enthusiastic core group of house directors, the project took shape under the name Prendre position.
Without the support of Société EDS Groupe LABRENNE at the Maison des étudiants canadiens, this project would not have been possible. On behalf of their 2,700 collaborators and employees, some of whom have worked in the Cité Internationale houses, Carlos Fernandes and Philippe Caussin made a decisive contribution to bringing the work to life. All the conditions were thus in place for its realization, and the Maison des étudiants canadiens donated it to the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris for its centenary.
The realization drew on a wide range of expertise: Jacques Ladouceur and Daniel Montmorency assisted Michel Goulet in the fabrication of the work, while Sylvie Provencher coordinated the contributions from the houses, and François Massut and Benoît Laliberté oversaw its installation. The heritage management team and the estate gardeners collaborated to provide it with a landscaped setting.
It is impossible to name all the indispensable contributors to this project, including the management of each of the houses, but they will recognize themselves and appreciate how valuable their collaboration has been.
The ones who contributed to the project
