Ruines Mirage
Winning project
Ephemeral art installation in public space, reused materials
A ciel ouvert, Riorges, France, June 2024
Ribbed bars, marble stones
4m length 2m width, 2m height
Amidst the stones that line the Renaison River, there is a structure that appears to be in ruins: Upon closer inspection, one can see stones floating.
Ruins Mirage is an installation that involves creating a structure whose proportions are inspired by a built form. The project's composition aims to dematerialize this volume to the point of making it transparent, without substance, a mirage where the architecture disappears in favor of the site in which it is inserted.
Thanks to steel mesh frameworks, the volume remains identifiable while being almost invisible. Only the grid pattern reminiscent of ashlar remains perceptible.
The idea is to reverse the relationship between void and built form: the stones along the banks become the substance of a new architecture.
The numerous ruins along riverbanks testify to the historical importance of water, while today we evoke dried-up currents as landscape scars. The aesthetics of the ruin commemorate the passage of time and seasons, inviting those who venture there to appreciate the complexity and depth of the traces left by erosion.
It is also a reflection on the ephemeral, and, cradled by the water, the rocks tell the story of passing time and transitory nature.
If mirages, as illusions, can be perceived as a metaphor for the fleetingness of time and dreams, these ruins of another kind invite one to pause for a moment. It is not only about deciphering this geometry, but above all, about being lulled by this suspended time and filling these voids with imagination and poetry.
