Jardin de la Dalle

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Paris, 1997. A place I discovered during a walk around the suburbs. It left a deep impression on me. After 20 years, I finally found it again.

An island in a city, a fascinating timelapse of architecture and urbanization, built according the principles of Le Corbusier's ideal vertical city. 

 

An intriguing time related experience is at play. In the past twenty years, nothing seems to have changed, but in the five years I visited the site, it did.

Memory, time and desire shape my view. 

 

Traces of human intervention make the original architectural plan and aesthetics fade away. Small differences in the pictures show the refurbishing of this site, and as such the evolution of perception of an architecture. How do today's residents deal with living in this constructed environment?

A probing desire to preserve what was, becomes an investigation of what remains. An ode to the constant cycle of construction and demolition and all creations in between.

 

2017- now

Ongoing project.

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Secondroom Posted: secondroom.org/catalogue/nr-17-ilse-liekens

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Expo 2022 Secondroom Antwerp.​