COLLECTION PARTICULIÈRE
Art inhabits their lives. It appeals to their senses, their emotions, their intelligence. It nourishes them. Claude and Corinne have a spontaneous relationship with art, based on the pleasure of discovery. Beauty prevails over concept, but one cannot exist without the other.
After 40 years together, a few adjustments between their dazzling personalities and several moves between Marseille, Paris and Megève, Claude and Corinne are still as fiery and passionate as ever. For art, of course, but also for architecture.
This shared passion with ARCHIK obviously bore fruit: after several wanderings, it was an apartment in Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse in Marseille that brought them together. Accompanied in their search by Marie’s expertise and interior designer Julien Fuentes, they fine-tuned the property, which had already been cleverly redesigned, to suit their precise taste and accommodate their contemporary art and design collection.
Did you fall in love with this apartment? What was your first impression when you visited it?
C – We never imagined ourselves living in an aseptic place. So living at “Le Corbu” never occurred to us. But the building takes me back to dolls’ houses when I was a little girl, and that’s certainly what determined my involvement. For Claude, it’s also a return to his childhood, as he lived in a rough-cast concrete contemporary house that is still close to his heart.
C – C –This first visit with ARCHIK, we approached it as “tourist visitors” to Le Corbusier, without any personal plans. A visit that went its way… Why not. It was all there. All we had to do was reinvent, in keeping with the spirit of its creators, some equipment that is now obsolete, such as the kitchen.
ARCHIK chose architect Julien Fuentes for your project: how did the collaboration go?
Without fundamentally altering the volumes of the apartment, the work consisted mainly of a refresh in every respect: kitchen, paintwork, parquet flooring, woodwork, so that the apartment would look more like us. The layout was also redesigned to showcase our work.
The kitchen was completely redesigned, to be more adapted in terms of functionality, while at the same time replicating some of Le Corbusier’s and Charlotte Perriand’s characteristic kitchen features (high cupboards, reminiscent wooden handles on the kitchen fronts, etc.).
The color scheme used in the apartment is also directly inspired by the paint scheme Le Corbusier used in Bordeaux for the Cité Frugès, whether for the kitchen, or for certain volumes that have been repainted in pink, ivory white, almond green and red.
“We integrated a series of Louis XV period chairs into the modernist décor, in the purest tradition of French classical style.”
How did you go about decorating your new home?
We had to reinvent the decor to suit the proportions imposed by the architecture, and above all not alter the character of the premises. But since art has a history, and so do we, we integrated into the decor some of the antique furniture we had, such as a series of Louis XV period chairs in the purest tradition of French classical style. We married them with contemporary elements such as Isamu Noguchi’s Coffee Table and Angelo Ostuni’s rolling table. Particular care was taken with the lighting, again in keeping with the designers’ choices: the GRAS lamps by DCW Éditions cohabit with the Parentesi lamp by Achille Castiglione.
On the walls, we’ve hung a number of works by contemporary artists we collect. For the most part in black and white, these works are based on writing or symbols. And the mezzanine’s high ceilings enabled us to install two large-scale works.
And that was it ! Le Corbusier’s cell was transformed into a place we could call our own. Until the next adventure !
Is there anything you like about living in your apartment?
The second living room upstairs, an extension of the bedroom, gives it the air of a hotel suite, with a view of the sea.
And, of course, the “Corbu” lifestyle the village spirit and close-knit neighborliness. You can leave on a trip just by slamming the door, without a care in the world!
THE 3 FETISHES
BLACK ASS, DAN MILLER
Dan Miller is an American autistic artist who, by sublimating his handicap, has achieved notoriety recognized by international art institutions such as MoMA and the Venice Biennale. In this way, Dan Miller breaks free from his confinement to give free rein to his imagination and inventions: he declines his obsessions by repeating on paper the signifiers that relate to them to the point of illegibility. Black Ass” is a moving illustration of this, with its story and apparent simplicity.
UTOPIA, DIDIER FAUSTINO
Didier Faustino is a French artist and architect living between France and Portugal. His projects combine architecture, performance, installation and video. In this work, Faustino questions the social and political dimensions of “Being”. The work is beautiful in its simplicity: you write “Utopia” and everything collapses, the letters falling one by one, the word, the image. Everything is said.
À L’AVENIR, KELLYSCHACHT
Kelly Schacht is an active young Belgian artist. With her work À l’avenir, à venir, l’avenir… the artist plays with words and their meanings. She offers us a medium in which the viewer can participate interactively: to each his own reading. This work is playful, free and joyful. The vinyl letters are glued directly to the wall, and “Venir” is a luminous neon, making the work highly aesthetic. It is an optimistic response to the previous works.
Crédit photos – Olivier Amsellem & ARCHIK