In 1977, with the Lay Mission of Valbonne, GRATALOUP carried out its first monumental work, a vast mosaic pavement. He will use the theme of the Awakening of the Mineral, which is among the first archetypes of his painting, created in 1973.

"Initially, the model is made on a scale of 1 and offers layers of successive folds of a mountainous graphic. I unfolded everything, flattened and I superimposed these various carvings of mountain parts, which became a coherent, flat and graphic whole, seen from different angles."