Paris based Corpus Studio was commissioned by luxury fashion label, Jitrois, to make an ephemeral site-specific installation for Paris Fashion Week. The result was an architectural sculpture comprised of two kinetic mobiles built from steel and mirrors.
The sculpture has a delicate composition that pays homage to Alexander Calder's mobiles, yet due to the industrial materiality and bold lines it also has a brutalist aesthetic which stands in stark contrast to its location; a Napoleon III apartment-come-showroom overlooking the Jardin des Tuileries.
One mobile is suspended from the all-white apartment's ceiling and the other is transposed, sitting erect on the floor. The circular mirrors are attached in tension to a steel structure and along with the semicircular arcs, rotate on their axes. The over-all effect is a provocative exercise of asymmetric balance as the mobiles rotate. The mirrors' reflections randomly catch glimpses of the historic apartment and the viewer themself; often merging all three together in infinite multiplication when the mirrors align, reflecting one another and recomposing the space. One feels transported through the passages of time (past, present and future) yet totally at peace in the surrounds of the space and architectural sculpture.
The mobiles, in dialogue with one another by means of chiastic rhetoric structure (a literary tool, often used in poetry to emphasise and question meaning) reflect Jitrois’ identification during a time of rebirth. Despite an evolving creative direction that is moving towards a more contemporary aesthetic appealing to a new generation, the company is not without complete disregard of past inspirations; on the contrary, they choose to distort them and exact a new perspective.
Corpus Studio is a nascent architecture and interior design company. They design spaces, objects, places, stories, atmospheres, environments, ephemeral states and strategies.
Photography by French abstract photographer Valentin Fougeray.
Source: Corpus Studio
