Palisades / Correction structures
Installation Nuit Blanche, Paris, 4 - 5 October 2003.
© Phœbé Meyer
Bar palissade: a "corrective structure"
Niek van de Steeg's intervention is a reaction to the urban development of the Paris Rive Gauche district. For the space of a night, the artist is taking over the site of a future construction. Between the Frigos and the Grands Moulins de Paris, at the intersection of Rue Thomas-Mann and Rue René-Goscinny. he is using building site equipment found locally to construct a wooden enclosure of about 2.000 square metres. Niek van de Steeg is working with what already exists to create a singular environment.
According to Van de Steeg. this imagined or transformed building site constitutes a "corrective structure". The notion of "correction" is one that he uses regularly in his work. Here. it is applied to the specifie context of a developing town. During the night. Van de Steeg will "correct" the reality of this quarter. setting up an ephemeral architecture. at once a space under construction and a place for life, for encounters and pleasures.
The terrain delimited by the wooden fencing is like a genuine architectural project, set on a parcel of land under construction and bounded by pavements. All allong the fencing between one and two metres from the top, there is a slit through which those in the street can see into the enclosure. At one end of the terrain , on the Rue René-Goscinny side is the entrance to this ephemeral structure Two "mini-kiosks" frame the opening and indicate the ingress to the site. Inside the nature of the ground changes The tarmac of the street g1ves way to the packed earth of the building site. At the heart of this space, opposite the entrance, stands the main "kiosk". Built from the same horizontally-split fencing. its interior bathed in green light, its twofold function is to provide music and serve as a bar Near this bar, in blue light, a cicular dance floor 1s marked out on the ground Overhanging this is the DJ's booth, bathed in red light. In this Bar palissade, their feet on packed earth and their ears filled with low-techno, the public is invited to live, exchange, dance and dream in a fragment of architecture awaiting completion Alexis Bertrand
Niek van de Steeg's intervention is a reaction to the urban development of the Paris Rive Gauche district. For the space of a night, the artist is taking over the site of a future construction. Between the Frigos and the Grands Moulins de Paris, at the intersection of Rue Thomas-Mann and Rue René-Goscinny. he is using building site equipment found locally to construct a wooden enclosure of about 2.000 square metres. Niek van de Steeg is working with what already exists to create a singular environment.
According to Van de Steeg. this imagined or transformed building site constitutes a "corrective structure". The notion of "correction" is one that he uses regularly in his work. Here. it is applied to the specifie context of a developing town. During the night. Van de Steeg will "correct" the reality of this quarter. setting up an ephemeral architecture. at once a space under construction and a place for life, for encounters and pleasures.
The terrain delimited by the wooden fencing is like a genuine architectural project, set on a parcel of land under construction and bounded by pavements. All allong the fencing between one and two metres from the top, there is a slit through which those in the street can see into the enclosure. At one end of the terrain , on the Rue René-Goscinny side is the entrance to this ephemeral structure Two "mini-kiosks" frame the opening and indicate the ingress to the site. Inside the nature of the ground changes The tarmac of the street g1ves way to the packed earth of the building site. At the heart of this space, opposite the entrance, stands the main "kiosk". Built from the same horizontally-split fencing. its interior bathed in green light, its twofold function is to provide music and serve as a bar Near this bar, in blue light, a cicular dance floor 1s marked out on the ground Overhanging this is the DJ's booth, bathed in red light. In this Bar palissade, their feet on packed earth and their ears filled with low-techno, the public is invited to live, exchange, dance and dream in a fragment of architecture awaiting completion Alexis Bertrand
this texte is edit in the catalogue " L'œuil de la nuit Nuit blanche 2003 Parcours Paris Rive Gauche" ...
Curated by Camille Morrineau.
With the participation of the city of Paris and Radio FG.