Claude Parent
dal 28/1/2012 al 9/3/2012
Segnalato da
28/1/2012
Claude Parent
Esther Schipper, Berlin
Drawings. The show features two series of drawings titled Incisions and Open-Limit in which Parent develops plans for his Ville oblique, in effect an entirely 'sloped' city.
Esther Schipper is pleased
to present the first exhibition of drawings by French architect Claude
Parent in Germany.
By the early-1960s, Claude Parent had already had a
successful architectural career. With the completion in 1952 of
'Maison G&rsquo' (together with Ionel Schein), he had introduced
American bungalow-style modernism in France and with the design of
various supermarkets in the greater Paris area (Nanterre, 1958; La Celle
Saint Cloud, 1959; Athis-Mons, 1961) firmly been established as a name
in French architecture.
He worked closely with Yves Klein on the design
of a rocket and designed the home of the fellow architect, sculptor and
painter Andrèeacute; Bloc.
Parent gained further recognition in the
1960s, when together with philosopher and urbanist Paul Virilio he
developed the ‘oblique function’ theory that was inspired by
a joint visit to WWII bunkers situated on the Atlantic Wall. The theory
focuses on the inclined plane as a new relationship between architecture
and the body. Forming the ‘Architecture Principe’ group,
investigating a new kind of interplay between architecture and urbanism,
they rejected the traditional axes of horizontal / vertical and used
oblique planes in an architecture of disequilibrium; to turn living
spaces into dynamic areas of bodies in movement.
Parent's first
and his most spectacular buildings harnessing this theory is the church
of Sainte-Bernadette du Banlay at Nevers completed in 1966. In 1970,
together with Virilio, he published Vivre à l'Oblique, the
manifesto of the 'Oblique Architecture' movement. In the
same year, he installed a sloped floor in the French pavilion at the
35th Venice Biennale. His architectural style has not been entirely
uncontroversial as in 1986 he participated in the design of Cattenom, a
nuclear power plant situated on the river Moselle in Lorraine, France.
Esther Schipper shows two series of drawings titled Incisions and
Open-Limit in which Parent develops plans for his Ville oblique, in
effect an entirely 'sloped' city.
Claude Parent (*1923,
Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) lives and works in Paris. He has influenced
some of the most prolific architects today, including Rem Koolhaas and
Jean Nouvel. In 1979, he was awarded the Grand prix national de
l'architecture and in 2010 was made Commandeur de la Légion
d'honneur. He is a member of l’Academie d'architecture and
l’Academie des beaux-arts. In 2010, the Cité de
l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris, honored Parent with a
major retrospective titled Claude Parent: Graphic and Built Works. An
exhibition in association with Galerie Natalie Seroussi (Paris) and
Daniel Wust.
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