Paris | Diller Scofidio + Renfro at the Fondation Cartier

above: Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Preparatory study for the exhibition  Musings on a Glass Box, October 25th, 2014 – February 22nd, 2015, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris. © Diller Scofidio+Renfro.

Musings on a Glass Box | Diller Scofidio + Renfro | Fondation Cartier

The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris, celebrates its 30th anniversary with a vivid program of events and exhibitions. Among them is particularly worth to be reported the exhibition “Musings on a Glass Box” created by renowned New York-based multi-disciplinary studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

The installation consists of a complex and articulated ensemble of perceptive interventions, which has been conceived to interact and play with the Cartier foundation’s building, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel in the 1990s.

View of the exhibition Musings on a Glass Box, October 25th, 2014 – February 22nd, 2015, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris. Photo © Trevor Lamphier / Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

Musings on a Glass Box is composed of several elements, interconnected to one another through a wireless network, each of them interacting with the others as well as with Nouvel’s building, involving not only its architecture but also its technical systems.
Thus, a robotized bucket skilfully collects water droplets falling from the ceiling in 12 points on the floor, a camera and a microphone placed inside the bucket record images and sounds from the bucket’s “point of view”, transmitting them to a giant horizontal LED screen, suspended close to the ground and accessible by public through wheeled loungers.
The recorded sounds become part of an immersive choral soundscape, conceived by composer David Lang in collaboration with sound designer Jody Elff. Furthermore, the building windows are provided with a series of “smart films” that periodically turn from transparent to translucent, altering the perception of both the internal space and the external garden which encompasses the Center.
Thus, with Musing in a Glass Box, Diller Scofidio + Renfro involve Nouvel’s building in a complex interplay between architecture and a site-specific intervention, while creating a game-some network of cross-references.

Above: Views of the exhibition Musings on a Glass Box, October 25th, 2014 – February 22nd, 2015, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris. Photo © Luc Boegly.

MUSINGS ON A GLASS BOX
text by DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO

Jean Nouvel’s distinctive glass exhibition spaces in the Fondation Cartier have been a provocation to artists and curators for two decades, upending the conventions of the white box gallery and pushing the limits of architecture.
The large, transparent walls of the building were at the forefront of glass technology in the ‘90s, aspiring to one of Modernism’s highest goals: to dematerialize the wall and seamlessly connect interior to exterior.
Musings on a Glass Box empties the ground floor galleries in order to put them on display.
Their visual and acoustic qualities are heightened through a few strategically placed interventions in the building’s plumbing, electrical, and facade systems. Using a cliché of time lapsed and the appearance of neglect, the project begins with a single, mischievous leak from the ceiling.
A response ensues with the aid of a bucket, a chorus, sensors, robotics, remote communications, video, and real-time sound processing. The two ground-floor galleries interconnect in a feedback loop. Small gestures in the large gallery are amplified in the smaller one, making the familiar seem uncanny and turning the banal into the grotesque.

Above: Views of the exhibition Musings on a Glass Box, October 25th, 2014 – February 22nd, 2015, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris. Photo © Luc Boegly.

Musings on a Glass Box | Diller Scofidio + Renfro
In collaboration with David Lang and Jody Elff.
Project Leader: Matthew Johnson assisted by Trevor Lamphier and Patrice Gardera
Engineering: Perfection Electrics
Smart Film provided by Glass Apps

Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain
October 25th, 2014 – February 22nd, 2015