“Doorstop, Paperweight – The Dead Fly,” 2023

“Doorstop, Paperweight – The Dead Fly,” 2023
· Cast bronze mounted on a natural or black wooden base
. Numbered and signed
· Dimensions: 20 x 9 x 6 cm
· Edition of 24
· Price: €3,750 Excl. VAT (Shipping not included)

A dead fly rests on a simple doorstop.Yet here, the ordinary becomes extraordinary: this small sculpture, cast in bronze using the ancient lost-wax technique, draws our gaze downward—to the floor, to what is usually overlooked or stepped on. By choosing an object with a utilitarian appearance, Johan Creten plays with the tension between the humble and the precious, between the accessory and the work of art.

This doorstop symbolically marks the entry of three of Johan Creten’s works into the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and assumes a dual role. On the one hand, it modestly fulfills its primary function: keeping a door open. On the other, it becomes a symbol, a threshold. The fly resting on it—dead or merely exhausted—takes on a meditative dimension: is it a memento mori, a reminder of life’s fragility, or a discreet guide holding open the passage to another world?

A nod to Duchamp, Beuys, or Brancusi, this piece also raises the question of the pedestal, condensing within itself a part of the history of modern sculpture. At once humble and powerful, it demonstrates the capacity of art to elevate what seems trivial, to open doors, and to invite new perspectives.

Thanks to the donation of the Friends of the Musée d’Art Moderne, three ceramic sculptures from the Bestiarium series entered the museum’s permanent collection in 2023: The Dirty Boar, The Toxic Beaver, and The Dead Fly—a work that has become emblematic of the artist’s universe, here presented in bronze and at a reduced scale.

This doorstop was thus conceived by Johan Creten to mark the addition of these three major works to the permanent collection of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.