Vincent Lamouroux

Le Credac, Ivry-sur-Seine’s municipal art center and site of Vincent Lamouroux’s current exhibition, occupies the basement of an eccentric complex of buildings born of the utopian imagination of architect Jean Renaudie. One descends from the ground level into an immense room with a steeply raked floor (the space was a movie theater before being converted into a gallery) to see Grounded, 2005, an artwork that links painting, sculpture, and architecture. Highlighting the contours of the space, a wide black band spans the gallery’s walls, while a room-size wooden grid of triangular modules is suspended just below the ceiling, with an octagonal light fixture placed above it. Eight rhythmically flickering neon lights illuminate the space. Grounded thus reveals the spatial characteristics of the site, reanimating and transforming its history according to the standards of contemporary architecture. The “black box” of the movie theater is literalized by the black band on the walls—but this same band might also be conceptualized as an infinite horizon. Suggesting the idea of a space both closed and open, the room is circumscribed by the rectangle described by the band and constrained by the modular construction overhead. Thus the space appears both secured and floating, ushering the viewer into an ambiguous atmosphere that encourages exploratory meditation or a melancholy stroll.

Translated from French by Jeanine Herman.