Anne et Patrick Poirier

Le Temple aux cent colonnes, 1980

Artist
Anne et Patrick Poirier
Title
Le Temple aux cent colonnes
Dimensions and medium
Construction and plaster casting on wood base, 54 × 244 × 244 cm
Artwork description
This plaster model, created by artists Anne and Patrick Poirier, is inspired by the Villa Adriana in Tivoli, Italy. It is part of the Lost Archetypes series begun in 1979 at Harvard University, in Massachusetts, which includes other projects linked to this famous remnant of Antiquity. Le Temple aux cent colonnes offers a comprehensive view of ancient ruins and a unique understanding of the traces of lived experience. Through a reduction of scale, the artists appropriate the vestiges of ancient architecture to develop a new creation they call “parallel archeology”, or “mental architecture.” The piece represents a temple that has been exhumed from the depths of the spirit, with its harmonious composition and play of irregular volumes made of blinding white plaster, a material which, according to the artists, is symbolic of the rational mind. The work juxtaposes notions of the ruin and of utopia, of order and chaos, of the past and the future.

See Also

Loading...

Only a part of the collection is currently online and the artworks on display at the MAC are accompanied by the icon

The contents presented in this section are not exhaustive and may be subject to revision. If you have comments to share, or errors to report, please contact us at [email protected].

For information about copyright and intellectual property, or for a reproduction request, see our Terms of Use.