Yann Kersalé
Yann Kersalé (born Boulogne-Billancourt, 17 February 1955) is a French conceptual artist who works with light.
Life and career
Kersalé was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburb of Paris, and spent part of his childhood in the Breton port town of Douarnenez. He graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in Quimper in 1978.[1][2] Beginning in 1984 at the Société métallurgique in Caen,[1] he has produced architectural illuminations of both natural environments and buildings that have founded a school of modern French light artistry.[3]
Artistic philosophy
Kersalé rejects the label of either architect or light artist, preferring that of "project artist".[4]
Selected works
Temporary installations
- Le songe est de rigueur, Quimper, 1986. Computerised projection of light patterns on the ocean in response to "the movements of the tides, the currents, the wind and so forth" against "a set of stranded, wide-eyed, steel megaliths".[5][6] It was filmed by Henri Alekan under the subtitle Structures de lumière.[7]
- Irréversibles lumières, Grand Palais, Paris, 1987. Blue fluorescent lighting inside the glass dome waxing and waning forty times a minute to produce the effect of a beating heart or a respiring lung,[8][9] while the metal framing the glass was picked out in white.
Permanent installations
- Sony Center, Berlin, 2000. Illumination of the atrium roof in a series of simulated sunsets approximately 21 seconds in duration from sunset to midnight; during the rest of the night the lighting is dark blue, except for bright white light preceding sunrise and also preceding sunset.[10][11][12]
- Torre Agbar, Barcelona, 2005. Exterior illumination of the office tower causes it to "glow at night as a colorful monolith".[13] Lighting patterns are created by 4,500 panels each containing 18 LEDs, each of which is capable of 255 degrees of intensity, creating over 16 million hues, each panel independently controlled by a computer responding to 20,000 inputs including weather conditions and building systems.[14] The tower "vibrates in a play of primary and complementary colors."[15] Kersalé has described the lighting as "a vaporous cloud of colour that seeks moiré".[16]
- L'amorse du bleu, Avenue Jean Médecin, Nice, 2008. Blue diodes strung over the avenue; one of the public art commissions in association with the Nice tramway. Kersalé's intent was "to create a vault of calm blue suspended in the air, in opposition to the density of the activity on the ground".[17]
References
- ^ a b "Yann Kersalé, un sculpteur de lumière", Nuits des docks, Services aux habitants, Saint-Nazaire-sur-Mer, cached 27 April 2008 Template:Fr icon
- ^ Julia Schulz-Dornburg, Arte y Arquitectura: Nuevas Afinidades / Art and Architecture: New Affinities, Barcelona: GG, 2000, ISBN 9788425217784, p. 143.
- ^ "The French light touch", designer profile, mondiale.co.uk, review of Vincent Laganier, Lumières architecturales en France, Paris: AS, 2004, cached 27 April 2008 Template:Fr icon
- ^ Christian Werner Thomsen, tr. John William Gabriel, Visionary Architecture: From Babylon to Virtual Reality, Munich/New York: Prestel, 1994, ISBN 9783791314259, p. 185.
- ^ Artforum international 33 (1995) p. 213.
- ^ Jahrbuch für Licht und Architektur (1993) p. 13.
- ^ Films and Filming 1987, p. 22.
- ^ Dietrich Neumann, "Architectural Illumination since World War II", in Architecture of the Night: The Illuminated Building, ed. Dietrich Neumann, Munich/New York: Prestel, 2002, ISBN 9783791325873, pp. 78–86, p. 82.
- ^ Bernard Marrey, Le Grand Palais: sa construction, son histoire, Librairie de l'architecture et de la ville, Paris: Picard, 2006, ISBN 9782708407763, p. 114 Template:Fr icon
- ^ "Selected Projects," Architecture of the Night, pp. 226–27.
- ^ Dietrich Neumann, "Leuchtende Bauten—Architekturen der Nacht" / "Luminous Buildings—Architectures of the Night," in Leuchtende Bauten: Architektur der Nacht / Luminous Buildings: Architecture of the Night, eds. Marion Ackermann and Dietrich Neumann, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz / Maidstone: Amalgamated Book Services, 2006, ISBN 9783775717571, pp. 16–21, 24–29, pp. 18–19, 26.
- ^ Jürgen Knirsch, Stadtplätze: Architektur und Freiraumplanung, Leinfelden-Echterdingen: Koch, 2004, ISBN 9783874226561, p. 101 Template:De icon
- ^ Neumann, "Leuchtende Bauten—Architekturen der Nacht" / "Luminous Buildings—Architectures of the Night," pp. 19, 26.
- ^ Torre Agbar, Edificios, Factoría Urbana Template:Es icon
- ^ Christian Simenc, Yann Kersalé—Le siège des lumières," L'Oeil May 2008, Artclair.com Template:Fr icon
- ^ Barcelona Part 1: 2. Torre Agbar, World Architecture, Origin Design Studio.
- ^ "La volonté de Yann Kersalé est de créer une voûte de calme bleu suspendue dans les airs, en opposition à la densité des trafics au sol": "L'amorse du bleu", L'art dans la ville—Les œuvres de la nuit, Communauté d'Agglomération Nice Côte d'Azur, archived 2 May 2008 Template:Fr icon
Sources
Works by Yann Kersalé
- Yann Kersalé. Paris: Gallimard, 2008. ISBN 9782070122806 Template:Fr icon
- Manière Noire: Géopoétique du paysage. Paris: Une & l'autre, 2008. ISBN 9782357290143 Template:Fr icon
- Lumière matière. DVD, 80 mins. Ecole centrale des arts et manufactures (Châtenay-Malabry, Hauts-de-Seine) Atelier audiovisuel, 2009. OCLC 690390144
Works by others
- Jean-Louis Pradel. Yann Kersalé: Lumière matière. Collection Archipels. Paris: BaS, 1990. ISBN 9782908474015 Template:Fr icon
- Philippe Curval. Yann Kersalé. In association with the exhibit "Expédition Lumière", 27 April – 10 July 1994 at Espace Electra. Monotypes. [Paris]: Hazan, 1994. ISBN 9782850253829
- Philippe Curval with Yann Kersalé. Yann Kersalé: Expéditions lumière / Light Expeditions. Catalogue. Paris: Enrico Navarra Gallery, 1995. OCLC 52349752
- Jean-Paul Curnier, Henri-Pierre Jeudy, Monique Sicard and Eric Germain, with translations by Jean-Hugues de Vandière. Yann Kersalé: Light for Landmarks / Structures lumière. Paris: Norma, 2003. ISBN 9782909283821
- Vincent Laganier. Lumières architecturales en France. Scéno +. Paris: AS, 2004. ISBN 9782912017253 Template:Fr icon