sketch of David Evrard

The artist David Evrard is contributing to this project

Luxembourg Gardens

The container is a stake. It gives a scale to the landscape, the territory. Along the highway, the stake is repeated. Its rhythm is a sign of the entrance to the site. The signal plays with time and space, that of the travelling car braking lightly to an unexpected event. The vertical containers are 10m tall, generating a new landscape. Another sign looms in the distance, similar but not quite the same: 8 piled containers. Intrigue, questioning, surprise, attraction.

At the site, the vertical containers are there again, giving an industrial monumentality to the entrance, filtering the oncoming trains. A dense regrouping on the left, like the village that extends afoot of the cathedral; pavilions made of containers are assembled to provide shade and air-flow. Between them, bars and bistros, little shops, benches and tables. The containers become part of the intimate scale.

The exhibit on cultural identity is hosted in the pavilions. Behind those, the VIP village. and as a backdrop, to the side, the Cathedral. A performance space with 300 seats. The space is 24 meters wide, with a light roof on top. The entrance is controlled, the containers on the ground form a tight barrier. Above those, the container walls become porous, allowing the air to flow freely.

On the other side of the site, a smaller stage acts as a counterpoint, creating a tension in the landscape. Behind these two elements, the small stage and the Cathedral, a line of horizontal containers mark a limit of the site. The artists of the summer academy inhabit them with their work.