ON A HUGE TERRITORY Virginie DELANNOYE
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"On a huge territory"
Virginie Delannoye
December 19, 2014 to February 20, 2020
I wouldn’t say I was obsessed by cupboards; they have become part of me. Since 2007 my art has been all about furniture and in particular cupboards because they have a front, a back and whatever is inside. For me, furniture and architecture are closely related and I explore this relationship through sculpture.
The implantation of Flaine Forum within its surrounding landscape is striking. Down at street level, shop-fronts and restaurants have been decorated with wooden facades to make them resemble mountain chalets. The idea of taking a place and transforming it into what you want has been part of my work for a long time. What is it we like in a place, and why? What are we ready to keep or get rid of?
In 2010, after reading a book about how some apartment blocks designed by Le Corbusier in Frugès had been transformed, I decided to put myself in the skin of 6 different inhabitants and transform six standard mass-produced pieces of furniture into something different. For Flaine I bought seven standard furniture kits and assembled them with older pieces of furniture.
I don’t try to identify this work with the architecture of Marcel Breuer - the simplicity of the furniture’s shapes, colour and substance gave me the freedom to play around with them as if they were a children’s construction set, placing them inside one other. This exhibition provides the visitor with an opportunity to wander around, allowing the sculptures and their surroundings to be seen from a variety of different viewpoints.