Also known as the “Broken Column”, the “Grande colonne noire de Suchères” has stood since 1984 at the Suchères service area along the A89 motorway, on the border between the departments of Loire and Puy de Dôme. Standing 12 metres high, it is made up of 12 reinforced concrete rings, each 5 metres in diameter, covered in marble. Anne and Patrick Poirier, both born during the war, have been working for several years on the concept of the “poetry of ruins”. This work aims to show that things around us can go wrong and quickly fall apart. It opens the way to a reflection on the brevity of life and the ruin of civilisations.