Tower of Figures

The Tower of Figures stands twenty-four meters tall as a monumental, totem-like sculpture that defines the landscape of the Île Saint-Germain. Created by the French artist Jean Dubuffet, this structure is a physical manifestation of his unique artistic cycle known as L'Hourloupe. The tower is covered in a distinctive, intricate web of black lines against a white background, punctuated by flat areas of red and blue. These flowing, irregular patterns wrap around the entire exterior, creating the illusion of moving, morphing faces and figures. Dubuffet first conceived the design for this tower in 1967, scribbling the initial sketches with a ballpoint pen during meetings. He spent nearly two decades attempting to realize the project, proposing it unsuccessfully for various public spaces in Paris and New York before the city of Issy-les-Moulineaux finally offered this specific site. Tragically, the artist died in 1985 just as construction began, so he never saw the finished tower, which was completed in 1988 according to his exact, pre-recorded instructions. The interior of the tower houses a remarkable, enclosed labyrinth called the Gastrovolve. It is a winding, one-hundred-meter-long staircase that leads visitors through a cavernous, organic space entirely devoid of natural light. Within these walls, there are no standard horizontal or vertical reference points, leaving you to navigate a disorienting, immersive world where the floors, walls, and ceiling are all covered in the same dizzying, monochromatic graphic patterns found on the outside.