Sterling Ruby Confronts Le Corbusier’s La Cité Radieuse
Installing material-driven works that juxtapose the UNESCO heritage site.
Summary
- Sterling Ruby showcases two landmark works that touch on materiality
- The exhibition is on view through September 28
Le Corbusier’s La Cité Radieuse (Radiant City) isn’t easy to miss in Marseille, France with the towering housing complex featuring a constellation of primary colors painted on the facade of 337 residential units. The 20th-century building is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and touted as a spectacular example of brutalist architecture or the “house of madness” as billed by the locals. Situated on top of the complex is MaMo by Ora Ïto, a contemporary art center that hosts exhibitions by artists from across the globe with its current show led by seminal American artist, Sterling Ruby.
Ruby has installed two landmark works as part of a namesake presentation at MaMo by Ora Ïto. The first monumental work is a sculpture entitled ‘DOUBLE CANDLE’ from 2018 that is made of two bronze forms measuring seven meters tall. The sculpture features a green-blue patina with oxidized components akin to the aging exterior of the Statue of Liberty. The second work ‘WALL’ from 2017 is the artist’s largest spray painting that is over seven meters wide and comprised of layered bands, lines and drips of diffused colors. Both works are meant to spark dialogue on the layered history of the UNESCO site with Marseille being a Mediterranean port “shaped by movement, memory and reinvention.”
And while Le Corbusier’s direction of colors were intended to trigger emotions, Ruby’s works are meant to confront the architectural’s structural elements with his visceral works that touch heavily on material transformation and the relationship between humans and the built environment. “The artist’s sensitivity to color resonates deeply here, his patinas and atmospheres engage in a visual dialogue with Le Corbusier’s color theory and the polychrome building, in which color is used as a spatial and emotional tool,” as per a press statement.
The exhibition is on view until September 28, head to MaMo by Ora Ïto’s website for more information.
MaMo by Ora Ïto
Centre d’art de la Cité Radieuse
280 Boulevard Michelet,
13008 Marseille 8ème
France
