N O # 0 7 - 1 9 2 0 x 1 0 8 0
R a d i a n t C i t y : P A R I S 2 0 0 0
Year:
2018
Resolution:
2 Filmloops w/ 1920 x 1080 pixels
Camera:
Spencer MacDonald / halfmagicfilms.com
The film loops show a before/after comparison of Le Corbusier's project “Plan Voisin”
- a radical urban design for Paris from 1925.
The project comprised the vast demolition of huge parts of the city center north of Notre Dame and Louvre, spanning from Parc Monceau in the west to Place de la République in the east. Instead of narrow streets and the city’s fragmented, additive and varied structure, uniform high-rises at the business districts, big apartment blocks in the residential areas and a motor highway network would dominate the skyline of Paris today.
The rows of giant housing blocks, the Unités, would be surrounded by large parks, the dominant office towers would rise tall behind the trees.
Even though Le Corbusier's proposal seems completely wrong and devastating from today's perspective, it has indescribable strength.
The contrast between old and new in scale, design and materiality are disturbing and intriguing at the same time.
currently exhibited at Sagmeister & Walsh: Beauty
24.10.2018 - 31.03.2019
at MAK Vienna / Museum Für Angewandte Kunst