Peter Downsbrough

(New Jersey (USA), 1940)

Suite 8 pour Saint-Clair, Lyon, 2013

Public art project, curated by Perrine Lacroix

 

ENG

In 2010, the city of Caluire-et-Cuir undertook a huge redevelopment program for the Saint-Clair neighborhood: the main objectives were opening perspectives towards the river, punctuating the grande rue with public and green areas, inviting both inhabitants and visitors to discover the neighborhood through a series of art works.

From September 2013 the elegant “passerelle de la paix”  (the peace footbridge), conceived for pedestrians and cyclists by the dietmar Feichtinger studio, crossed the Rhône, connecting the Saint-Clair area and the Cité Internationale.

In order to create a link and coherence from one end to the other the curator Perrine Lacroix opted for inviting Peter Downsbrough to intervene in the totality of the proposed spaces. Therefore one can enter this unique work that unfolds on the scale of the neighborhood.  His work unfolds the same way as do the pages of a book, changing along the way as in a story without imposing one single way of reading. This work is open and everyone can develop their very own scenarios.the elements used are minimal: vertical or oblique lines and simple words, spatio- temporal indications or conjunctions. conjunctions are words that join, link, connect, just as the black metal pipes drawn in the space accentuate our gaze. readable from far and from near they act as visual anchor points in the urban landscape, meeting places, passage or relaxing areas. Not unlike a piece of music, Peter Downsbroughs work constructs itself as we are moving through time and space, marking the environment we are passing through, and never ever locking us into an univocal reading.

 

Educational activities during the project: Peter Downsbrough - 'Suite 8 pour Saint- Clair', Lyon, 2013