Between the first and the second dinner of Making Spaces, we were lucky to organize an exhibition with Jean Pascal Flavien, to question the idea of space and gender...
The solo-show a nucleus for a house is made up of two new artworks: nucleus 00 (air – elastic) (2015) as well as the elastic house (2015) as an offspring of the nucleus.
The solo-show a nucleus for a house is made up of two new artworks: nucleus 00 (air – elastic) (2015) as well as the elastic house (2015) as an offspring of the nucleus.
Flavien researches the impact of architecture on our realm of experience. He constructs unusual spaces, for which he combines architectural, sculptural and performative elements. His works are concrete and poetic at the same time; models, installations and built objects derive from situations created by the artist. They represent conceptual entities; embody ideas, spaces and events, in which architectural conditions determine the user’s behaviours – and the other way around. Up until 2015, five houses had been built: viewer (2007–2009) in Maricá, Brazil, no drama house (2009–2012) in Berlin, two person house (2010–2011) in Sao Paolo, Brazil, breathing house (2012–) in the Parc Saint Léger, France as well as the statement house (2015-) in London, UK. Upcoming is the folding house in the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco. Flavien’s houses are driven by the question of how architectural elements change when repositioned, how we interact with a building on a day to day basis and how, inside a given space, the language of its users will develop further. The nucleus constitutes an additional element to these questions.
With the figure of the nucleus (lat. grain, core) Flavien bypasses the representational means of architectural practice. Up to this point, the parameters of a future building have always been captured in plans and physical or digital models. Contrary to such a projected architecture, the nucleus is a reality sufficient to itself. It contains the code for the structure and principles of a building without depicting it. It is a potential. The nucleus, comparable to a biological cell’s nucleus or the seed of a plant, can even be planted into an existing building. In that case, the house carries the seed of another house; it becomes a poetic figure.
Although abstract in form, a nucleus features small platforms that display its attributes. Every element or feature of the nucleus can become a generic idea to produce a future house. The elements can be combined or used singularly. In the case of 00 (elastic - air) (2015) there are a blue balloon and three salt balls from the Dead-Sea. The balloon, for example, can provide the two attributes air and electricity.
elastic house is a working-model of a house that embraces the idea of elasticity of space. This means the house does not rely on one scale in relation to an inhabitant, but it is based on a flexible imagination of space. Like in a dream (described by Henri Michaux) various scales and dimensions apply at the same time, rooms become exaggeratedly high or entirely flat, have different heights at the same time, are separate from the building core or hidden.
Press release (In German)
niche_berlin_–_hinter_den_vögeln_dt.docx | |
File Size: | 126 kb |
File Type: | docx |