Feipel & Bechameil: from utopia to dystopia
(© Anne Greuzat)
One of the most striking contributions to the 2011 Venice Biennale was the Luxembourg pavilion. In a typical Venetian building, the artistic couple Martine Feipel and Jean Bechameil created an interior that seemed to be gradually collapsing. Pillars were askew, drawers hung out of their cabinets, and twisted chairs lay on the ground. All in impeccably white, clinical material. Mirrors provided further distortions of perspective, intensifying the sense of disorientation. The two artists’ works often relate to architecture, as you can see in their current exhibition in the splendid spaces of the Valérie Bach gallery. Here, the duo takes as its starting point a few well-known multi-story blocks of flats built between the 1950s and the 1970s and uses them to evoke the failure of modernist architecture. At the heart of the exhibition is a single elongated, horizontal public housing block – a faithful reproduction of the “Cité des 4000” in La Courneuve (in the suburbs of Paris), where riots have been known to break out. This is an interesting sculptural object in white resin. The building recurs in a series of framed bas-reliefs in the same white resin: one of these represents the facade, with its striking rhythm of windows and balconies; another shows the rear, which makes a more enclosed impression. In other bas-reliefs, the balconies seem to be dissolving or collapsing – as in these artists’ Venice project. The model of the “Cité des 4000” is surrounded by four tall, cylindrical blocks of flats – the “Tours Nuages” in Nanterre. The buildings’ original windows look like bullet holes, adding to the sense of decay. A number of works on paper include elements of the same blocks: to suggest mass, pieces of the balconies have been cut away. These drawings are not really convincing, but the rest of the exhibition is worth a look. If you want to see the failure of modernist architecture with your own eyes, we would recommend a visit to the “model estate” in Sint-Agatha-Berchem/Berchem-Sainte-Agathe for a demonstration of how a utopia can turn into a dystopia – as Feipel and Bechameil know only too well.
Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil: Un monde parfait > 12/4, do/je/Th > za/sa/Sa 11 > 13.00 & 14 > 19.00, GALERIE VALÉRIE BACH, rue Faiderstraat 6, Sint-Gillis/Saint-Gilles, 02-502.78.24, www.galerievaleriebach.com
One of the most striking contributions to the 2011 Venice Biennale was the Luxembourg pavilion. In a typical Venetian building, the artistic couple Martine Feipel and Jean Bechameil created an interior that seemed to be gradually collapsing. Pillars were askew, drawers hung out of their cabinets, and twisted chairs lay on the ground. All in impeccably white, clinical material. Mirrors provided further distortions of perspective, intensifying the sense of disorientation. The two artists’ works often relate to architecture, as you can see in their current exhibition in the splendid spaces of the Valérie Bach gallery. Here, the duo takes as its starting point a few well-known multi-story blocks of flats built between the 1950s and the 1970s and uses them to evoke the failure of modernist architecture. At the heart of the exhibition is a single elongated, horizontal public housing block – a faithful reproduction of the “Cité des 4000” in La Courneuve (in the suburbs of Paris), where riots have been known to break out. This is an interesting sculptural object in white resin. The building recurs in a series of framed bas-reliefs in the same white resin: one of these represents the facade, with its striking rhythm of windows and balconies; another shows the rear, which makes a more enclosed impression. In other bas-reliefs, the balconies seem to be dissolving or collapsing – as in these artists’ Venice project. The model of the “Cité des 4000” is surrounded by four tall, cylindrical blocks of flats – the “Tours Nuages” in Nanterre. The buildings’ original windows look like bullet holes, adding to the sense of decay. A number of works on paper include elements of the same blocks: to suggest mass, pieces of the balconies have been cut away. These drawings are not really convincing, but the rest of the exhibition is worth a look. If you want to see the failure of modernist architecture with your own eyes, we would recommend a visit to the “model estate” in Sint-Agatha-Berchem/Berchem-Sainte-Agathe for a demonstration of how a utopia can turn into a dystopia – as Feipel and Bechameil know only too well.
Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil: Un monde parfait > 12/4, do/je/Th > za/sa/Sa 11 > 13.00 & 14 > 19.00, GALERIE VALÉRIE BACH, rue Faiderstraat 6, Sint-Gillis/Saint-Gilles, 02-502.78.24, www.galerievaleriebach.com
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