The sculpture is the culminating piece in a series of interventions by the artist in La Défense. The Grand Stairway links the large open public space in front of the Arche de La Défense with the new Auto-mobile Museum at a higher level to the south. The artist worked at the scale of the surrounding environment. The modular elements of the piece are half cubes of concrete (1.2m x 2.4m x 2.4m) encrusted with multicoloured ceramic tiles which are stacked on a square grid. The highest element in eachstack becomes a planter. The sources of inspiration for the piece are rich and varied, from Inca ruins through pointillism to contemporary industrial methods of mass production.
