Boutique Charlotte CHESNAIS
10, rue d'Alger
Paris 1er
Architect Anne Holtrop was her choice. She wanted an Experience, something natural yet strange rather than something simply beautiful. Those are her words. And Charlotte CHESNAIS found the answer to her wishes in the work of this young Dutchman. A much more radical answer. When they first met at her home in Paris, he was holding that answer in his hands. It was a piece of acrylic material, like a block of ice, mysterious and futuristic. The result of his own architectural interrogations. But Anne had never tried making it transparent before. This would be an adventure.
A year later, a large slab, strange and translucent and dense, holding sand from some unknown planet, fills this new timeless space. The store houses two huge monolithic blocks with their surprising ripples and reliefs, their inner glints. Observing them, you catch yourself thinking that a few hours they might have been fluid, flowing magma. As Anne Holtrop explains, “What we find here is another part of my work, which spills into the realm of the imaginary. In the sand-like patterns present in the acrylic material made for Charlotte I see worlds with hills and valleys, rivers and sediments. For me, a piece of work is successful when it allows for several different realities.”
Elements – “ear,” “neck,” “hand,” – in smooth metal. They have a slightly surrealist feel. They were designed by Charlotte herself. A coating of marmornino, intriguingly rugged, completes this new oasis with its sand-yellow tints. This installation carries the eye all the way to the window. “We have kept the original façade but we’ve softened its presence by colouring it in the same way as the interior;” stresses the architect. “The simple façade thus becomes a viewpoint and offers natural light for the interior. Its aim is to communicate what is inside.”
With a supreme material and a handful of straight lines, Anne Holtrop, one of the most talented architects of the new generation, has signed off on a piece of work that can stand beside his other projects, such as the Trail House or Fort Vechten Museum. It has that same closeness to matter, the “material gesture” favoured by this architect, whose art is concentrated in the process of working the material and the unique gestures that it engenders. A gesture that is true. The designer is delighted. “For me, this exceptional creation by Anne Holtrop is a continuation of the conversation between material and form that so fascinates me” enthuses Charlotte CHESNAIS. “There is this intrinsic ability to evoke distant images, detached from time – it is this upside down world that underpins my work. I hope this first boutique will offer those who come to visit a moment that is truly other.”
A conversation with
ANNE HOLTROP
アン・ホルトロップ、建築家
建築家兼アーティストのアン・ホルトロップは1977年、オランダのティール生まれ。アムステルダムの建築アカデミーで修士号を取得。2005年、優秀な成績で卒業。2009年、アムステルダムにスタジオ、アン・ホルトロップを開設。
模型やデザインオブジェから、仮設空間や建築物まで、幅広く活動している。
(そのため、Krijn de Konin や Bas Princenなどのアーティストとコラボレーションをすることもあります。）
彼のプロジェクトは、しばしば既存の空間、素材、形態からインスピレーションを得ています。
アンは以下のように語ります。
「私は多少計画的ではあれど自由な発想で、素材のジェスチャーを見て形を見つけ、それを建築にしていきたいのです。」