Sophie Bélair Clément
Des formes d’égale résistance
With the collaboration of Julien Maire
Guest choreographer: Marie Claire Forté
Residency: 18 January–21 March 2013
Exhibition: 22 March–28 April 2013
In the framework of project room @ aquarium
Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain
41, rue Notre-Dame
L – 2240 Luxembourg
T +352 22 50 45
F +352 22 95 95
info [at] casino-luxembourg.lu
[…]
RM: So… That works, right? Well. I was in Milan, at the Triennale. And at the Triennale, I saw these construction elements and interior metallic elements by French exhibitors, and I asked:
–But who has done these marvellous things, ladies and gentlemen?
–Somebody called Jean Prouvé from Nancy.
–Ah!
So when I went by that way, I went to Nancy.
PS: Hmm…
RM: Nobody knew Prouvé. He’d had some problems with Aluminium. He worked for Aluminium, and they fell out and so he didn’t have his workshops any more. I telephoned him, on his home number. And I had a meeting with him, in Metz, at the station Buffet.
PS: Oh yeah…
RM: …but for the pavilion, it was for the pavilion…
PS: …for the pavilion for the Exhibition…
RM: …for the Exhibition. So we talked there. (Scrape of a chair, paper, paper.) So, the pavilion—here’s a photo… And he took a Béierdeckel… how do you say that in French? How do they say it in English?
PS: Yes… a card…
RM: …that you put underneath a beer glass…
PS: Oh yes… a beer mat, yes…
RM: Yes. He drew on that, and he said:
- Well. For me, I would see a construction with…(1)
[…]
Des formes d’égale résistance is an exhibition project created by Sophie Bélair Clément for the “Aquarium” at Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain. This glass and steel pavilion, designed by architect René Mailliet, with the collaboration of Jean Prouvé (consultant engineer), was annexed to the building’s façade in 1958/59. Projects developed by Sophie Bélair Clément—through, for example, artistic license, historiography and translation—address questions related to historic strategies of presentation (spatial disposition, creation of a narrative).
(1) “Mailliet/Prouvé“: interview between René Mailliet, Philippe Schmit and James Cumming. Audio document, 1997. Archives Modernes d’Architecture Lorraine, Nancy.
Exhibition realised with the support of Délégation générale du Québec and iMal.
Press contact: presse [at] casino-luxembourg.lu.
