Jean Larivière’s fascination with toy robots gave birth to the work entitled Bercy, a photographic and video diptych. Inspired by the science fiction universe
of the 1950s, the Ministry
of Economy and Finance building transforms into
a robot, while a UFO from
an American film of that era flies overhead.

In the 1950s, these toys often had small television screens on which you could see spacecraft throwing out sparks from their thrusters.
The screen – in the tummy
of this little Japanese robot of that time – shows a reel
of all the ministers who headed up the Ministry of Economy and Finance, from its inauguration to 2009.