The meeting between Le Havre and Stephan Balkenhol occurred within the framework of the 2019 edition of Un Été Au Havre. Discovering the architecture of the Reconstruction, signed Auguste Perret, the artist had fun housing new occupants on the facades of several buildings.

For the 2020 season of Un Été Au Havre, Stephan Balkenhol completes this gallery of characters with a new specimen: Monsieur Goéland. This man with the head of a seagull is hoisted on a hybrid support, which is as much a perch as a mast and its yardarm. He wears a pea jacket, emblematic clothing of the people of the sea: sailors, fishermen, pirates... Installed on the esplanade of the Museum of Le Havre, surrounded by buildings, Monsieur Goéland stretches towards the sky, as if to seek the sea around. This monumental sculpture in painted bronze, of 2m80, is posed on a perch of 3m20.