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RENAULT 4 IN ART |
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RENAULT 4 IN ART |
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Since the Renault 4 has become a part of the global landscape, it has inevitably featured in films, stories and photography. It has also been the inspiration for several artists. Apart from pieces of art commissioned by Renault itself for advertising campaigns, the Renault 4 has found itself has represented in art whether it be painting, poems, music or drawings. Here are a few examples - more will be added soon
Both record sleeves and lyrics are © XAVIER LORENTE-DARRACQ
The song "La 4L de Jacky" penned by Xavier Lorente-Darracq and Mario Gachis has rapidly become a festival classic. A huge success having sold more than 70,000 copies, it featured in Patrick Sebastien's programme on France 2 Television. Though denied the full extent of the success it merits, it is one of the greatest festival songs of in recent times. The fact that it is about a Renault 4 - a rotten diseased deathtrap - is a bonus. Below are the lyrics and a link to the site of the artist who co-wrote the song and designed the sleeves. Also the "real" thing (click on thumbnail)
La 4L de Jacky, c'est un film d'épouvante,
Elle nous fait tellement peur qu'on s'y entasse à plusieurs...
On la pousse dans les côtes, mais par contre dans les pentes,
Elle fait un bruit d'enfer, elle sème la terreur...
Ça ne peut plus durer, il faut qu'on te le dise,
Jacky cette 4L, c'est une vraie poubelle!
JACKY - JACKY,
TA 4L, TA 4 É-É-É-É-LEUH,
JACKY - JACKY,
TA 4L, ELLE EST POURRIE!
La 4L de Jacky, elle est boufée par la rouille,
On risque à tout moment d'attrapper le tétanoss'...
Son toit il est plein de trous et quand il pleut on se mouille,
Quand on est rendus chez nous, on est trempés jusqu'aux oss"...
Ça ne peut plus durer, il faut qu'on te le dise,
Jacky cette 4L, c'est une vraie poubelle!
La 4L de Jacky, elle fait toutes les fêtes,
Tout le monde la connait, on rit quand on l'aperçoit...
C'est sûr qu'on l'aime beaucoup, mais maintenant on s'inquiète,
On a peur qu'un de ces jours, elle nous pète entre les doigts...
Ça ne peut plus durer, il faut qu'on te le dise,
Jacky cette 4L, c'est une vraie poubelle!
JACKY! 4L! POURRIE! POUBEEEEEELLE!!!!
Frank Rosen painted this picture in 1991, entitled 'My New Car', and says it was "Inspired by the absolute joy of the first car in my life; a Renault 4, in pink." This artist's work is described on his site as "romantic and abstract. His whole repertoire whether it be scultures, paintings, watercolours, drawings, lithographs and screenprints, shows remarkable versatility, embraced by vibrant emotion. Spontaneous ideas for sculptures, paintings and silkscreens are captured before they vanish, resulting in a very direct form of art work, in a wealth of different materials." Below is a link to his site, where this picture is for sale.
Installation under the Sphere - © Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb - Photo: Boris Cvjetanovic
The Renault 4 has featured in sculpture: Ivan Kožaric, an avant-garde veteran now in his ninth decade and fresh from participation in Dokumenta XI, enjoys an exceptional status in contemporary Croatian art. On this occasion he created a site-specific work incorporating his own metal sculpture from 1958, which is on permanent display in the grounds of the Gliptoteka in Zagreb. Underneath it he parked two old Renault 4 cars, one considerably older than the other, together with some wooden crates and other belongings. Installation under the Sphere (1958-2002) is a masterly intervention which ironises the basic idea of temporality, and more specifically, the indeterminacy of critical interpretation over time. By interfering in his own celebrated mid-century sculpture, Kožaric disrupts the modernist canon and signals the enduring contemporaneity of his practice. (comment by Maja and Reuben Fowkes in Frieze December 2002). Thanks to Ivan Kožaric and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, for kindly giving permission to display "Installation under the Sphere". Displayed as part of the exhibition "Here Tomorrow", curated by Roxana Marcoci, MoMA New York, organized in Zagreb, October – November 2002 - by the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb.
Arman Armand created this piece, called "Long term parking" in 1982. An 18 metre high tower of concrete and cars, it is displayed at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain. This photo came from Galeries magazine.
Robert Vas Dias wrote this poem about a particular Renault 4, entitled 'Renault 4'. The places described are in Ireland, and the foreign towns which are linked to Ireland by ferry.
Our old Renault 4 - which is sinking up to its lug nuts
behind the piggery, white mould misting its windows,
a lichen-like efflorescence blooming on the dark blue
vinyl seats - has become our own permanent
automobile sculpture garden between the stone
outbuildings of Ballylinch where nature quietly
metamorphoses the fabricated into the organic, where
people might pay to admire the aesthetics of rust,
decomposition of the late twentieth-century
artefact in rustic surroundings.
The sculptor might have titled it "Going Home,"
thinking of its hundred-thousand-mile trip
up and down interminable motorways of boredom,
avenues of déjà vu, streets of small errands,
messages and hotels, back and forth
(Swansea to Cork, Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire,
Fishguard to Rosslare) and ending
as marriages end, leaving recollection
to worry its way into the thin loam
of the steep hillside patch overlooking the sea,
where bindweed pulls at the wheels
and fails to move them, the battery dead,
leads corroded, plugs burnt out.
This is a song entitled 'L'amour en 4L", since I first put this up, I have discovered many other songs about the Renault 4. Below is a link where you can listen to an extract.
On ressemble à 2 quenelles, pas belle
Le soir, on voit le jour à l'hôtel
C'est Idem, on a fait ça au clair de lune
Même dans la gare de Bétune
Dans le TGV qui recule, Mais nous on a:
On a besoin d'amour
On a besoin d'amour
Besoin d'amour dans une 4L
On veut de l'amour dans une 4L.
On a tester sur trottoir, pour voir
On a fait ça à cheval, sur un arrosoir
C'est bizarre, avec Paul et Pauline
En se glissant dans les glycines
Dans les rosiers pleins d'épines, Mais nous on a:
On a besoin d'amour
On a besoin d'amour
Besoin d'amour dans une 4L
On veut de l'amour dans une 4L.
On a besoin d'amour
La tête en avant dans la boite à gants
On a besoin d'amour
Les jambes repliées façon plafonnier
Besoin d'amour dans une 4L
Les fesses en avant posé sur le volant
On veut de l'amour dans un 4L
Les bras bien en l'air sur la lunette arrière.
Due to its massive presence around the world, the Renault 4 has appeared in numerous films as part of the background. In some though it has had a starring role. There are many of these, including Romancing the Stone, Playtime, 102 Dalmatians, Les Visiteurs and more. Pictured above is "Les Visiteurs" a very successful (in France) film about two men who get sent forward in time from the middle ages. Unfamiliar with anything modern, they get frightened when they see a car (a Renault 4 post-van). They think it is the devil's chariot. To defend themselves, they have a sword fight with it. In Romancing the Stone, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner steal Danny DeVito's Renault 4 to find treasure. Unknown to them, Danny DeVito is asleep in the back of the car when they steal it. Once they have found the precious rock, he steals it from them. To complicate things further, the corrupt local police force turns up. In the chase which follows, Kathleen Turner accidentally drives the Renault 4 into a river, and then down a waterfall. She and Michael Douglas then jump out the sunroof. More information from the links below
ROMANCING THE STONE: RENAULT 4-PLAY
A FEMALE CABBY IN SIDI BEL-ABBÈS