Policy brief·Paris
Alicja Kwade Pulls Her 14-Foot Marble Sculpture From Art Basel Paris as Riots Escalate
Alicja Kwade is dismantling her public sculpture L'Élévation des Mondes from Avenue Winston Churchill two days early after violent protests rocked Paris, telling followers that protest is legitimate but destruction does not help the cause.
A monumental sculpture by Alicja Kwade installed for the public programme of Art Basel Paris is being removed two days ahead of schedule amid the wave of violent protests sweeping the French capital. The work, L'Élévation des Mondes (The Elevation of the Worlds), stands more than 14 feet tall on the Avenue Winston Churchill, on the doorstep of the Grand Palais where the fair is taking place.
The 2026 piece is composed of a stack of spheres in materials including rainbow sandstone, black marble and Carrara marble. According to a description published by her Paris gallery Mennour, the sculpture explores questions of world order, power and colonisation, while evoking the Tower of Babel and humanity's attempts to build systems that explain and organise reality. Its stones are described as witnesses to immense natural catastrophes and millions of years of planetary history.
The sculpture went on view on Wednesday and will be dismantled on Friday, rather than remaining until Sunday as originally planned, Mennour told ARTnews by email. Kwade addressed the decision directly on Instagram, where she has nearly 100,000 followers. She wrote that the work and other sculptures had to come down because of the announced riots and people resorting to violence, adding that protest itself is good but that smashing and destroying things does not help the cause.
The removal reflects how deeply the unrest has intruded on Paris Art Week. The New York Times described the protests — which began as a small student movement and spread nationwide — as the most destructive riots in decades. France's Interior Ministry said more than half a million people marched on Saturday, with some 1,500 shops and symbols of the state vandalised, more than 2,000 arrests and curfews imposed in affected areas.
Kwade, born in Poland in 1979 and based in Berlin, is one of several artists whose public-facing works have been caught up in the turmoil. The fair itself has installed anti-ram barriers around the Grand Palais and warned it may close early if the security situation deteriorates.
