A Never-Ending Stone – Une pierre sans fin
Concrete performance with Emmanuel Sala (dance) with help of Isabelle Brunaud (choregraphy), maycec (live sound of her piece Quadraria), Anaïs Aria Sala and myself (concrete making), two sessions of 15 min, 2024.
A standardised material on a global scale, concrete is now widely criticised for its harmful ecological impact. Its natural components are not harmful in themselves, but its overuse has made it a veritable scourge. It was an idealised post-war tool, with the vision of rehousing people quickly and cheaply, without questioning its lifespan. It also benefited the worst authoritarian regimes, in the creation of inordinate narcissistic constructions. Today, we are paying the cost of its deterioration, its impact on health when it is destroyed (respiratory disease), and its impossible recycling.
During my residency at the Cité des Arts in Paris, I looked at François Coignet, a little-known French concrete pioneer who was also a Fourrierist (19th-century social utopian). As early as 1853, he built his first house in reinforced concrete, which was later followed by France’s first social housing called “La Ruche” in St Denis (Paris surburbs), built by his son in 1894. Issues of health and social progress were very important to Coignet, who hoped to create a “stone paste” that would enable him to democratise architecture, “a never-ending stone “.
As part of the performance, I invited one of his current descendants, Emmanuel Sala, to interpret his relationship with the humanisation of architecture through dance. A haemophiliac from birth, he underwent several knee operations until the day he was fitted with a surgical cement prosthesis, supposedly temporary. This large piece of concrete has lived in his body for 25 years.
In parallel with Emmanuel’s dance, Anaïs Aria Sala, also a descendant of Coignet, and I experimented with concrete ‘made in Cité des Arts’, based on Coignet’s experimental recipes.
A Never-Ending Stone – Une pierre sans fin
Series of four objects made of vernacular concrete from elements collected on the site of the Cité des Arts and its immediate surroundings, variable dimensions (Ø from 17.5 to 22 cm), 2024.
This work refers to the words of the theoretician Anselm Jappe:
‘Concrete has killed vernacular architecture’.
Rhythms of living
a collaborative work gathering photography, algorithmic music and contemporary dance, 2023.
Rhythms of Living is a performative walk that introduces the audience to the specifics of modernist architecture in the Weitlingkiez in Berlin-Lichtenberg, specially built for workers and employees in the style of the Neues Bauen. It’s characterized by a clear formal language and high functionality, with the
aim of improving the quality of life through access for all to large green courtyards, light, and central heating.
In the project, my photographs of architectural details are used as graphic scores for Felipe Vaz’s algorithmic compositions, and both inform the choreography of Annekatrin Kiesel and Nicole Michalla.
The walk-in opera format includes a guided tour accompanied by algorithmic music, contemporary dance, and a photographic libretto.
Click here to “listen” to the photos: https://rhythmsofliving.weebly.com/musik.html
Rhythms of living I was supported by Draussenstadt in 2022.
Rhythms of living II was supported by the Kulturamt Berlin-Lichtenberg in 2023.
Burden
Video excerpt, mute, dimensions variable, 16/9, full film 08:10, 2023
Shot during the lockdown of 2020 in an urban space emptied of occupants, these still scenes were realized in the limited perimeter between my home and my studio in the Lichtenberg district. They reveal the different strata of East Berlin’s modern architectural history, from the utopian Garden Cities through the Communist period (Stasi headquarters, Plattenbau) to the gigantic storage sheds. In this performative video, I try to represent the burden and mental load that I have to carry. As the film progresses, fatigue builds to the point of physical and mental exhaustion.
Things get heavy
work in situ, 2018
video stop motion, no sound, 2 ́33 ́ ́, self-made plan, laser print A0
Invited to exhibit in a private flat, I decided to weight every element of it in order to calculate the total mass. I brought my own scale and weighted me with each object, and if I couldn’t lift an object I estimated. During the vernissage that happened in the flat, I weighed each visitor to calculate the average of the heaviest moment. The peak happened with 44 people, for a total mass of 6534,4 kg.
This work questions the potential physical and psychological influence generated by the built environment on our bodies and minds.
Floor
composition for a sound performance (improvisation), 25:00, 2018.
With Yukari Misawa (flute), Aleks Slota (vocal) & Marie Takahashi (viola),
wood.
Inspired by the layout of Japanese tatamis, the scenography of my composition «Floor» forces the musicians to perform in a horizontal position. They are thus forced to direct their gaze towards the ceiling rather than to exchange with the public.
Grater
sculpture, grater, porous concrete block, circa 1,1 x 0,6 x 0,7 m, 2017.
It can be turn into sound performance, variable duration
Porous concrete is a standard construction material that allows for the quick erection of walls. From raising to erasing.
Courtesy visit
performance, about one hour, 2015.
During a residency in Düsseldorf, I led a group of visitors through the house complex I was living and working in: built by the Nazis in 1937, this was first a model for artists housings. I started by explaining how much I enjoyed my time in this beautiful place without knowing the past, and specially the nice proportions of my studio-housing. For that reason I redraw its plan by myself and shared it with the audience.
Then we went in the middle of the common garden, where I did a parallel with the american TV show Melrose Place I used to watch as a teenager : a pool in the middle surrounded with housings. At the difference here that the inhabitants are not sharing the originally common space, but rather appropriates parts of it by using sometimes strong physically barriers.
In this context, I decided to copy them and slowly expand my territory over the 2 months: I first appropriated the green space in front of my house by cutting the bamboo that overgrown there. Moreover I renovated a part of the pool that was recovered with vegetation. By doing that, I started a little territory war in the house complex. To protect myself, I built a bow and some arrows made with the bamboo rods I cut previously.
