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CHIMÈRES
nARCHITECTS and Piotr Klemensiewicz

FROM JULY 7 TO SEPTEMBER 1

Paintings, installations and videos under the skies of Provence


Like every summer, the small village of Lacoste in the French Provence becomes a huge contemporary art gallery. This year, the Savannah College of Art and Design-Lacoste ,SCAD, presents Chimères, a fabrication of joined disparate parts. The artists’ projects are complete bodies of work, joined through a shared inspiration--the perception of landscape and desire to formulate a response. The works are unified by a mix of the hard and soft qualities of the Provence hillside and the pliable nature and chiseled limestone of Lacoste. The site-specific installation, exhibited throughout the village, is at the same time an invitation to explore the gardens and the galleries of the School.


nARCHITECTS Wind Shape Lacoste 2006

 

WHERE?

In the village of Lacoste,
at the Galerie Pfriem,
and at the Galerie Bleue
84480 LACOSTE

INFORMATION:

Tél : 04 90 75 66 34
E-Mail : lacoste@scad.edu

HOURS:

Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm,
Saturday and Sunday 10am to 5pm.

ADMISSION FEES:

Free admission

PRESS CONTACTS:

D2S Communication Tel: 01 53 42 65 74
Gwendoline Porte gwendoline.porte@d2s.fr

Savannah College of Art and Design
Angela M.Hendrix, Director of Public Information
Tel. USA + 1 912 525 5225
ahendrix@scad.edu, http//:www.scad.edu


Wind Shape

Wind Shape, by New York-based firm nARCHITECTS - founded by partners Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang in 1999. - unites elements from Lacoste while echoing the agricultural landscape to form an inhabitable outdoor environment on Lacoste’s terraces. The installation is constructed of vine-like networks of white plastic pipes and threaded polypropylene string. The tense infrastructure responds to the mistral winds with rhythmic oscillations and rippled surfaces. The beautiful formation invites visitors to investigate the interior and linger inside the enclosures. The piece is an inverse of the surrounding traditional thick masonry walls, a fictional reconstruction that is an evolving transparent castle towering six meters in height.


Unfolding: The Evolution of Wind Shape

Unfolding: The Evolution of Wind Shape in La Galerie Bleue presents a design-build collaborative process between nARCHITECTS and four SCAD students--M.Arch. candidates Jim Bischoff, Michael Gunter and Cindy Hartness and M.F.A. candidate Ryan Townsend. Selected to participate in the construction and installation of “Wind Shape,” these students realized hypothetical string patterns and devised the potential placement of doorways and open spaces in the enclosure. These experiments are central to the success of the finalized design, built in part by the students. “Unfolding” is a chronicle of the process from start to finish.


The Dandy Dwarves

The Dandy Dwarves, a collective of SCAD filmmakers and video artists, has documented the process of design and construction of “Wind Shape.” They will show a selection of independent works that is a hybrid of surrealistic narration. These will be digitally projected in the interiors of natural cave-like enclosures throughout the town. The Dandy Dwarves have collaborated on 14 short films and have been featured at the Cannes Film Festival’s Marche du Film


Piotr Klemensiewicz

In Galerie Pfriem, SCAD presents French artist Piotr Klemensiewicz. A painter and professor at the Universite of Beaux Arts in Marseilles, Klemensiewicz works with the noted artist collective Chambre avec vu and has published eight books of his work. The most recent, “Obstructions,” was released in 2005. His solo exhibitions and corporate installations have garnered critical acclaim throughout France, Korea and Canada.


nARCHITECTS’ work has been recognized nationally and internationally in publications and exhibitions. Recent awards include the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices Award (2006), an AIA Design Honor Award (2005), the Canadian Professional Rome Prize (2005), Architectural Record's Design Vanguard (2004), the MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program (2004), and a New York Foundation for the Arts grant (2002).

Founded by American surrealist artist Bernard Pfriem, the Lacoste School of the Arts, located in the village of Lacoste, a beautifully preserved medieval village of about 300 inhabitants, perched on a steep hillside, in the South of France, held its first session in the summer of 1971. Since then over 1500 students have been through Lacoste.Outstanding light and beauty in an exquisite rural setting form the backdrop for a focused educational experience. In 2002, the Lacoste School for the Arts, Inc. finalized the acquisition of the school’s property by SCAD, which now oversees the academic programs and facilities.


Illustration: Piotr Klemensiewicz Echelle encombrement no 3 2004Acrylic on canvas 225 x 150 cm