What could be further apart than a contemporary artist born in 1978 and one of the most revolutionary architects who emerged in the early 20th century? A connection exists. It is explained in Genius Loci, an international traveling project created by Marion Vignal, with an exhibition program that not only creates interaction between architecture, design and contemporary art, but also aims to shed light with each event on architectural treasures that are usually off limits.
From 14 to 22 October in Paris, Benoît Maire at the Ozenfant House is an exhibition produced in collaboration with Villa Medici, the French Academy in Rome. The works of Benoît Maire are seen inside the Ozenfant house, the residence of the painter Amédée Ozenfant built in 1922 based on a design by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret.
A selection of paintings, sculptures, videos and furniture, produced by the artist during his residency at Villa Medici, in dialogue with one of the first purist constructions of the architectural duo, a manifesto of the Esprit Nouveau based on order and geometric rigor.
The reflections of Maire on the measure of time in relation to man, his existence and his environment, jibes perfectly with the idea of Le Corbusier of the human being inside a space. Within a value scale covering simplicity, economy and rationality, centered on the individual. To the point of making a work, an object or an architecture as unadorned as possible.
As in the case of the Lampe Médicis by Maire, a luminous object on view that embodies the skeleton of a work of architecture. Or the free design of space, which inside this residence (in the workshop-studio) reaches its apex in the suspended bookcase accessed by means of a narrow ladder. To visit the exhibition and the house, appointments can be made at geniusloci-experience.com
