Pavillons en bronze Genève2008
For us the cruel stabbing of Sisi on the Rade of Geneva in 1898, was disreputable and dolorous of course, but seen with touristical eyes, highly romantic. This important moment in history of the Rade inspired us to charge the pavillons with a memorable touch of nostalghia. The Rade is somehow an extension on both side of the lake of the picturesque english garden edified in the same period as Sisi’s passage. In our eyes the pavillons should transport this relationship to time and space by it’s form and materialisation.
Bronze is a typical public material mostly used for sculptures. The Rade is already full of it, souvenirs of monumental moments in history. We discovered as well small infrastructural wooden constructions on old photographs of the Rade. Those buildings were all perpendicular to the shore and were covered with double pitched roofs. We took over the romantic longitudinal form and tried, with this very common form, to lift the expression by a materialisation in bronze which make them more extravagant, more monumental. One prototype for ice cream was constructed and cladded with prepatinated bronze sheets. Over 5 years during the summertime the prototype was located on the rade. During winter it served temporarily as well as a methadon spending station for drug addicts in the suburbs of Geneva.
