Felice Varini Transforms Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse into a Series of Optical Illusions.

Following in the footsteps of Xavier Veilhan, Daniel Buren and Dan Graham, Felice Varini has transformed MAMO, an open-air art centre located on the top of La Cité Radieuse – Le Corbusier’s 1950’s housing residence in the South of France. In 2013, Cité Radieuse’s roof was converted into an exhibition space by french designer Ora-Ïto, who invited Varini to highlight different architectural viewpoints of the terrace.

French-Swiss artist has introduced multiple perspectives at the MAMO by painting striking shapes across the terrace. Titled ‘À ciel ouvert’ (Open Air), the project references Le Corbusier’s distinct style of modular forms sitting in harmony with the modernist construction.

“A viewpoint is a point in the space that I choose carefully: it is usually situated at my eye level and preferably located in a key passageway, for example where one room leads to another, a landing, etc. I don’t make a rule of it, as spaces don’t all systematically have an obvious path. The choice is often arbitrary. 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. Therefore I do not see the accomplished work through this first point; this is encompassed in all the views that the spectator may have of it,” explains Varini.

Felice Varini’s ‘À ciel ouvert’ runs from the July 2nd to October 2nd 2016, at the MAMO centre at Cité Radieuse in Marseille, France.

[Images courtesy of Felice Varini/ @ MAMO. Photography by André Morin.]