"On a red bike to the beach"

This summer, let's all get on our bikes, listening to "En vélo rouge à la plage" the Léger museum's summer hit!

A creation by Cédric Gonnet / @artvivace / @lesptitesouvreuses, with children from the Bon Voyage school in Nice, recorded at the museum, in front of Fernand Léger's painting Les Loisirs sur fond rouge (1949). To see the video of the finished project, click on the image above and the link here.

11 children from Marie-Laure Pérez's CE1 class (year 2023-2024) at Bon Voyage 1 elementary school took part in this project, launched in September 2023. A militant song for better access to leisure, a theme dear to Fernand Léger, who wanted to make art accessible to all.

This celebration of leisure is symbolized by the bicycle, the practice of which is experiencing a veritable popular craze. Often represented in Fernand Léger's work, the bicycle embodies the advent of leisure, in the context of the first paid vacations in 1936.

Passionate about the "accessible and popular" practice of sports, in the image of the works he wished to create, as much as about the object itself (the wheels, the handlebars, the movement generated...), Léger made the bicycle an art subject in its own right: "A bicycle is an object in action in the light. It commands legs, arms and a torso that move underneath it, beside it and underneath it [...] It's a modern, complete spectacle that can equal in grace the waltz of the six white horses. But the four legs are missing. The tour de force lies in its very instability. The bike or the acrobat can't stop. That's where the risk lies, the adventure of small, precise and crazy mechanics"

Discover the complete summer hit "En vélo rouge à la plage" by Cédric Gonnet / artvivace / lesptitesouvreuses, with children from the Bon Voyage school in Nice, shot at the Fernand Léger national museum, in the gardens and in front of the painting "Les loisirs sur fond rouge" (1949).

To be enjoyed without moderation! Energy and good humor guaranteed for the rest of the day!

"Ah-ah-ah-ah Ah Tou Ba Tou Ba TI Ba Tou Ba Là!"

With the support of Sacem, Nice Metropole Côte d'Azur, and Nofinisherline

Music: Alexis Belhassen and Cédric Gonnet

Visuals: Extracts from the clip "En vélo rouge à la plage" by cédricgonnet / artvivace / lesptitesouvreuses, with view of the work "Les Loisirs sur fond rouge" (1949), and of the museum gardens with facade and view of the sculpture "Jardin d'enfants" (1960) by Roland and Claude Brice, after the model by Fernand Léger (1954). Paintings by Fernand Léger, "Les Loisirs sur fond rouge" (1949), "Les Deux guidons" (1945) and "Les Quatre cyclistes" (1943-1948). © Adagp, Paris 2024.