'The Bull' by Gé Pellini, street art in Nancy

Near Place de la République, on the esplanade of the Centre Prouvé, a red bull with sleek lines watches over the city. This monumental sculpture, 'Le Taureau', is the work of Nancy-born Gé Pellini. It features on the ADN urban art trail, Art Dans Nancy.

A red bull in the city

You cannot miss it: about three metres long and weighing some 800 kilos, this bull stands massive yet elegant. Gé Pellini pares its forms down to the essential, keeping only the powerful silhouette and the characteristic horns. Its bright red colour contrasts with the grey of the stone and draws the eye from afar, in an area recently redeveloped around the Centre Prouvé. Installed in spring 2018, the animal quickly became a landmark and a photo subject for passers-by, between the station, the congress centre and the city centre.

An echo of Stanislas's coat of arms

The choice of animal is no accident. The bull echoes Stanislas's coat of arms: the aurochs, or buffalo, appears in the arms of the Leszczynski family, from which the king-duke descended. By raising this heraldic animal in the heart of Nancy, the work quietly ties the contemporary city to its princely history. The red colour reinforces the beast's symbolic presence and its almost totemic charge. Gé Pellini does not seek realistic reconstruction: he delivers a strong, instantly readable image that works like a modern emblem planted in public space.

Gé Pellini, Nancy sculptor

Born in 1966 in Nancy, Gé Pellini made his name with minimalist sculptures of horned animals, chiefly bulls and rhinoceroses. He hunts for the right form, stripped of superfluous detail, keeping only the strength of mass and suggested movement. Nancy's 'Le Taureau' was cast in bronze at a foundry in Rambervillers, in the Vosges, before being installed in 2018. The work reflects strong local roots: a homegrown sculptor, a Lorraine casting and a subject drawn from the city's history, brought together to give Nancy an animal figure that has become familiar.

On the ADN trail

'Le Taureau' is among the sculptures on the ADN trail, 'Art Dans Nancy', which gathers more than forty works — murals, stencils, installations and sculptures — from the Porte de la Craffe to Place des Vosges. Its position, at the gateway to the city centre and near the station, often makes it a first encounter with Nancy's urban art for those arriving by train. Freely visible by day and night, it suits a quick stop or a stage on a fuller circuit. A leaflet published by the city helps locate the other works and plan your own route.