Labyrinth Artist Residences
Toulouse 2008
The labyrinth represents the artist in the solitude of artistic creation. As the artist is isolated from the world when they create, this space is isolated from the city that surrounds it. This is an uncertain space, that leads to a sense of continuous movement, of finding the way out. The space is a road of initiation towards the artist’s own world and art, a mediator in between the public and the art.
A superposition of labyrinth and counter-labyrinths gives different senses to the space. The history of the labyrinth changes always. The artists themselves decide if and when they want to open or isolate themselves. Most of the wall panels glide and open up the atelier towards the rest of the space. So from an opaque closed space the labyrinth disappears sometimes and a new space is born. The heart of the labyrinth is an art gallery and a public space that gives the space a pulsation from the narrow paths of the labyrinth.
The labyrinth gathers a mix of public and private spaces in a very dynamic relationship. So the architecture of the objects is juxtaposed to the architecture of the relations in between the objects. The space is more that just one image, it takes a life of its own. Different dead-end become art points that always lead towards the gallery. We have the choice, we wonder, we live the space.
In the space of the labyrinth one can really escape from the reality of the city, experience a different sort of intense and fascinating space. To the thick, opaque wall of the labyrinth I juxtapose vegetation. Nature devours the wall and the proof of this degradation is the rusted corten steel. The scenography of the space is composed each moment by the inhabitants so next to the labyrinth there are always the counter-labyrinths