La Tete Carrée: when surrealist sculpture meets architecture

If during these days of vacation you are in France and you are hunting for some interesting subject with which to make a selfie, nss has the right tip for you: the Tete Carrè, a sculpture-building that, as the name reveals, has the form of a human head.

More precisely, it is a cube of 14 cubic meters with the mouth and chin implanted on a pair of rounded shoulders.

Also known as "Thinking Inside the Box", this work is in Nice and was designed by the Marseilles artist Sacha Sosno in collaboration with architects Francis Chapus and Yves Bayard.

For some time the latter caressed the idea of turning a sculpture into a building, so, when the right occasion was presented, he enlisted his friend Sosno who had already created several small "square head" sculptures.

The base of the structure, 28 meters in total, has the shape of a sculptural bust, cut horizontally in the middle of the mouth and surmounted by a large cube.

Built according to naval techniques and inaugurated in 2002, the Tete Carrée is not only a great example of modern art made entirely of aluminum, but houses the Bibliothèque Municipale à Vocation Regionale (BMVR), dedicated to the writer Louis Nucéra.

The fact that the interior of this architectural work of art is full of books is the perfect metaphor hidden behind its project: the mind conceived as a large box that contains knowledge.

Unfortunately, Tete Carrè cannot be visited, but you can always use it as a backdrop for your selfies!