On the former war memorial in front of a wooden hall in the French commune of Biron, in the Dordogne department, the artist randomly and anonymously placed plaques engraved with the answers of local residents to the question: "What do you think would be important enough to risk your life for?"

Critically acclaimed, Le Monument vivant de Biron is a benchmark among atypical war memorials and contemporary works of art.

[1][2] As tourism is above all an important economic factor for local communities (over a third of their annual income), all development projects in rural and agricultural areas are strongly encouraged.

[3][4] A vast heritage investment project was launched in the south of the department by the elected representatives of the Beaumont canton, in conjunction with the architect of the Bâtiments de France,[5] the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles (DRAC) and the Ministry of Culture, to develop new works that would involve "all sectors of local life".

[3] In 1992, when Biron mayor Marc Mattera began road renovation work, he asked the French Ministry of Culture to launch a national public order to replace the town's war memorial, which had fallen into disrepair and oblivion.

[2][6][9][10] The monument[N 2] was rebuilt identically in yellow Dordogne and Burgundy stone,[2][11][12] then raised on a plinth, the whole placed on a three-degree sloping base.

Isolated in the rhythm of the exchanges, it is these confessions, each around seven lines long,[12] which were then engraved on red enamelled iron plaques[N 3] and placed randomly and anonymously on the monument and even on the ground.

[13] The artist has entrusted a couple living in the village with the responsibility of asking the question ad libitum, to new residents and to those who will come of age in the commune in the years to come.

[11] It's the people from Biron that make up the monument.The work differs from conventional war memorials, which simply consist of a ritual formula generally appended to a vertical list of the names of the deceased.

[2] The local, national and specialized press agree that Le Monument vivant de Biron offers a moving and human experience of proximity.

[15][23][24] By transgressing the boundaries of art as they are classically conceived, the work is considered by Sébastien Thiery to be an "ideal-typical of contemporary public monuments".