Felice Varini’s open-air installations are the focus of the new contemporary art exhibition, title ‘À ciel ouvert’ at Ora Ito’s Marseilles-based MAMO art center, on the roof of the Le Corbusier-designed Cité Radieuse.
The French-Swiss artist living in Paris finds himself in a unique situation, “This is the first time that I have exhibited on, in and with architecture designed by Le Corbusier. This place is a landmark, a huge influence. It is a true microcosm, designed as a small city with its range of complex volumes, a small city with a view over the large city of Marseille. It is extremely exciting!”
Felice Varini has covered the whole terrace with three pieces (red and yellow) offering three different viewpoints. This is a logical choice made by Ora Ito for whom Felice Varini is one of few great contemporary artists “able to use, underline and highlight a single architecture equally as well as a whole city. The space is his natural medium, I am very proud to have introduced him to this roof terrace that he had only previously seen in a photo.”
The viewpoint will function like a point of interpretation, that is, like a potential starting point to approach the painting and the space. The painted form makes sense when the spectator is in this spot. When the spectator leaves the viewpoint, the work encounters the space generating an infinite number of views of the shape.
Felice Varini’s ‘À ciel ouvert’ will be on display until the 2nd of october, 2016, at the MAMO centre at Cité Radieuse in Marseille, France.
all images © André Morin