Urban Mutations
Scenography of a touring interactive and temporary exhibition about today’s urban issues.
From 15th June 2016 until 5th March 2017 at Parc de la Villette
While the challenges of the century may appear daunting ( or on the edge of a cliff), our developing work invites to take some distance. In furtherance, the paradigm of urbanism is rebuilt on a dialectic between the visible and invisible, equipment and uses, infrastructure and landscape. All in all, between the “hard” and the “soft”, those words subjected to the computer sciences are as of now in great use in urbanism. Each inhabitant of an urban territory has the right to know “how it works”, for she/he can further rethink as to “how it could work”.
The scenography of the path through the exhibition is characterised by the movement between a 3D motherboard,in the The space is a network, a matrix that invites diverse and contrasting components. The first part of the exhibition named “Ville Under Pressure” deals with hidden but needed elements for the running of the city: underground, ground composition, technical grid, digital, materiality.
The space of the stage becomes a 550 square meter system board in 3D, organized around two complementary scenography principles: a regular 3D grid symbolizing the city’s network and engineers of the 21th century, may be displayed in different ways (pipes, scaffolding, cables, optical fiber, wireless sound ..) in which are inserted different thematic blocks (systems’ components) presenting the content of the exhibition through various scenic processes giving visitors the paradoxes that sculpt the beauty of today’s urban spaces between the 20th century legacy and city 2.0. The design of the frame is based on the template of the existing technical floor frame 3*3 throughout the building to the Cité des Sciences. The plot borders the ‘islands’ so to speak in order that the circulation around the installations allow a comfortable visit for all displaying different tools (tubes, cables, fibre optic, sound...) as plug for the thematic block (system component). Where building requires grounding, furniture is placed into the scaffolding with their concrete bases.
More than just a simple scenography, it is a didactic tool, and submerges visitors in an immersive environment. The frame is materialized in a nomenclature of materials borrowed from urban networks of pipes and pipelines, cables and wire, under-ground or open-air, those allow the city to be fed, evacuated, and to circulate .. . a tensioning frame to reveal the «nodes», junctions, crossings ... stress points where the exhibition’s components are plugged into.
These thematic islands, components of the exhibition, are well plugged into the frame that technically supplies. The scenography’s composition is as follow: plug + frame = islet. Several islets constitute a theme (mobility, new digital uses, density, tenure security, global urbanization, cities and territories, infrastructure and environment) .these themes are divided on the scheme and are set close to each other through mutual influence.
The urban frame and tensions expressed above are nowadays inscribed in the urbanites’ DNA. The main challenge of an urban mutation could therefore be thanks to potential sudden emergences and random new urban arrangements, as a result of loads transferring, sharing and networking.
The principle in this scenography is to disturb the hard-upper urban frame with a system that we voluntarily call “soft”. This system illustrates the hyper connected city, represented by a set made out of curves and canvas, transparence and flexibility. Its development rhythm is composed of power and density variations. The soft frame creates upper spaces that offer primarily visitors some creative spaces, but also a “plaza”, designed for places of exchanges, discussion, and listening... a change of attitude that brings a change of mind.
