Drawing, Jean Tinguely, 1976

Archives Cyclop is a digital platform dedicated to Jean Tinguely's Le Cyclop and the work’s archives. Intended for both the merely curious and the specialized public, this tool makes it possible, through the virtual linking of documents, to explore and (re)discover Le Cyclop through its archives. Designed to encourage the passage from one archive to the next, like a stroll through Le Cyclop’s meandering memory and history, the platform also comprises several functionalities: a database equipped with a simple and advanced search engine, and data visualization modules for archival documents, with a chronological timeline and an interactive map. The ambition of the platform's ongoing development is to make it a real tool for the public to acquire more knowledge about this singular work, its history and its protagonists.

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In the news

A revival for Le Cyclop and its archives

The newly restored Cyclop has been given a new look and a digital platform dedicated to its archives.

The Cyclop is a monumental sculpture by Jean Tinguely, a monster made of concrete and metal, covered with mirrors on its southern side. It is a giant's head planted in the middle of the woods in Milly-la-Forêt that scans the environment with its only eye. As high as a seven-story building, the head of this Cyclop can be visited like a museum, where the visitor wanders through a maze of works of art and curiosities.

Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle and their friends began the construction in 1969. Numerous artists collaborated in a family and festive atmosphere. By inviting his friends to participate in the construction of this collective work, Jean Tinguely brought together several dozen works of art in one place. Without permission and with their own funds, they worked with recycled materials. Completed twenty-five years after the initial work, Le Cyclop was inaugurated and opened to the public in 1994.

The Centre national des arts plastiques launched the restoration of the Cyclop in March 2021. The site closed its doors in October 2020 to make way for a vast restoration site that lasted over a year, to reopen to the public on May 22, 2022.

For this occasion, the Cnap has designed a digital platform for the Cyclop, dedicated to its archives. Born of the observation that archive sources are geographically dispersed and that it is difficult to give an account of the history of this singular work in all its specificities and stages of construction, this platform will encourage the bringing together of these multiple archives and allow the public, whether curious or specialists, to (re)discover Le Cyclop thanks to the functionalities of the digital tool.

In Le Cyclop's ear

  • Ouverture de Boss Tor
  • Grincements de Boss Tor
  • Passage dans Le Pénétrable sonore
  • Les engrenages La Méta-Harmonie
  • Les engrenages La Méta-Harmonie et La Dégringolade en arrière-plan
  • Mouvements des Sièges du Petit Théâtre
  • Le Tellflipper en action
  • Le Tellflipper et trois tintements
  • Le Tellflipper et un tintement
  • Ouverture du loquet de Boss Tor
  • Ouverture du loquet de Boss Tor au niveau zéro
  • Un son de La Batterie au premier niveau
  • Sons de La Batterie
  • Plusieurs sons de La Batterie

Ouverture de Boss Tor

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La Face aux miroirs avec son oeil allumé cachée derrière les arbres

Call for contributions

Le Cyclop is a collective work and the www.archivescyclop.fr platform is intended to be as well. Museums, institutions, foundations and individuals are all invited to contribute to the enrichment of this unique work’s archives. If you have archives related to Le Cyclop, please contact us. Just click on the button below and fill in the form.

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