Long Term Parking

Long Term Parking is a concrete-bound sculpture at Château de Montcel in Jouy-en-Josas that consists of 59 stacked car wrecks. The structure rises to about 60 feet and weighs roughly 1,600 tons.

The work was created in 1982 by French-American artist Arman with support from patron Jean Hamon. Its funding exceeded one million French francs, underscoring its importance as a monumental art project.

The work displays vehicles from different manufacturers like Citroën, Renault, and Fiat that reflect the car landscape of twentieth-century France. Visitors can see in it a portrait of the mobility culture of a specific period.

The sculpture is accessible on the Château de Montcel grounds and allows visitors to examine how the concrete gradually exposes the embedded cars over time. The outer layers of the vehicles become visible as the surrounding material weathers, showing the ongoing process of decay.

Some of the embedded cars were painted in fluorescent colors to make them stand out from the concrete. These vehicles were deliberately chosen based on proportions that matched cars circulating on roads during the 1980s.