Pedestal for a water drop is a sculpture consisting of a tiny pedestal measuring 1cm³ and a water drop deposited carefully with a Pasteur pipette by artist Benoît Pype (b. 1985). Showing a drop of water on a pedestal is a simple idea yet which opens multiple possibilities for reading.

At the outset, we can see a way to pay tribute to one of the substances, if not the substance, that is essential for life. By observing water in its minimal form, the viewer pays more attention to it than usual. Pype shows us the banal but in an enchanting way. Water is examined as a pearl, which leads us to appreciate its preciousness and rarity; here it has become a treasure or relic.

Water loses its quality by being used on a massive scale, and restoring its potential quality takes time. The fact of showing water
gives rise to many thoughts and questions concerning the universal right of access to drinking water and sanitation, the operating and distribution costs, and also raises questions about pollution of our lakes, rivers, seas, oceans, problematic use of fresh water in the West... Water is and will be a real political issue in tomorrow’s world.

This pedestal for a drop of water clearly reveals, by its title, that it is a matter of showing the drop as a sculpture. By presenting it in this way, the artist gives the whole an undeniable sacredness. It is a drop that reveals a world. Water has always conveyed symbols of purity and perfection; we only have to think of the cleansing rites of many religions or the founding myths of each civilization. The dreamlike strength of water crosses all cultures and plays a major role in the history of symbols. Reduced here to the fragile state of a bubble, an unstable sphere, water refers both to the great story of life and its vulnerability. Inevitably, the drop will evaporate. The artist therefore invites the gallery staff, the institution or collector to place another drop on the pedestal. Its disappearance implies an intervention. A cycle is created.