Newspaper — Spring 2019
Welcome to my world. Arne Quinze keeps on contesting the greyness and dullness of the environments we live in After many new installations and exhibitions in Mumbai, Paris and Knokke during the past year, 2019 is again extremely busy for Arne Quinze. Three major openings were scheduled for February: an open-air sculpture exhibition in Valencia, an exhibition in Gstaad in Switzerland, and an exhibition in Brussels.
Arne
uinze
The City of Arts & Sciences site in Valencia, for example, receives 2 million visitors annually. This means that almost 5,500 people walk past the sculptures on the Paseo del Arte every day. This architectural and cultural complex is one of the 12 “treasures of Spain”, was designed by Santiago Calatrava, and opened to the general public in 1998. It is without any doubt the biggest tourist attraction in Valencia and far beyond. Arne Quinze is one of the few artists in the world lucky enough to have been given the honour of exhibiting at this exceptional location and has installed his Natural Chaos sculptures there. Next, the Patricia Low Gallery in Gstaad is very popular in the art world. With previous exhibitions by Damien Hirst, Peter Halley, Erik Parker, John Chamberlain and others, we can consider this a very exclusive solo show for Arne Quinze. From the 21st of February Arne Quinze is also exhibiting at his own gallery, Maruani & Mercier in Brussels. Since its launch in 1995, the gallery has been focusing on American artists such as Man Ray, — AQ 1 —
Printed on 100% recycled paper
Andy Warhol, Gavin Turk, Peter Halley, etc. But in 2017, Arne Quinze was the first Belgian to become one of the resident artists that the gallery represents through its branches in Knokke, Brussels and Paris. For his home audience, Arne Quinze is showing a series of new Lupine sculptures and a masterfully painted 12-panel work called “Twelve Months”. On receiving these opportunities, Arne Quinze found it important to exhibit new work. This ambition was translated into an enormously busy work schedule, whereby in recent months the artist has been creating almost 24/7. The result is hugely gratifying: we are witnessing the creation of three completely new series of artworks. The overwhelming reactions after the first press conferences may give a hint of the new advances in Arne Quinze’ career in 2019. Inspired by nature and outraged by our disrespectful treatment of it, in 2019 he will with his creations continue to contest the greyness and dullness of the environments we live in.
Arne Quinze on diversity — 14
“WE HAVE DESTROYED OVER 30% OF EXISTING FLORA AND FAUNA SINCE MY BIRTH”
Running solo exhibitions Feb 7 – Oct 13 Valencia City of Arts & Sciences Feb 12 – Apr 20 Gstaad Patricia Low Gallery Feb 21 – Apr 6 Brussels Maruani Mercier
View on the Lake of the Hemipheric with the sculptures by Arne Quinze, Valencia.
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Contents O4
My secret Garden — Valencia, the solo exhibition by Arne Quinze
O6
Dialogue: Miriam Atienza and Arne Quinze about sculptural art
1O Discover Arne Quinze’s major inspiration: nature
12
Twelve Months My Secret Garden painting: a real magnum opus
14
Arne Quinze on ‘diversity’: “We have destroyed 30% of existing flora & fauna since my birth
16
Overview of sculptures, installations and exhibitions by Arne Quinze
18
Lupines: new colourful medium-sized sculptures
22 ARNE QUINZE Head office Hooglatemweg 18 9830 Sint-Martens-Latem Belgium www.arnequinze.com info@arnequinze.com
Arne Quinze is represented by
My Secret Garden paintings: an overview of the series MARUANI MERCIER GALLERY Avenue Louise 430 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium www.maruanimercier.com laurent@maruanimercier.com
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Exhibition “My Secret Garden — Valencia” presents a series of six public sculptures that enter into dialogue with the powerful architecture of Calatrava. Each sculpture of the series addresses the rich diversity of forms, structures and colours found in the Plantea. With “My Secret Garden Valencia”, Arne Quinze calls for a more profound dialogue between nature and culture in the development of our modern society. By challenging his public with unconventional sculptures, he encourages a sociocultural conversation that stimulates creativity and embraces diversity. “Arne Quinze is honoured to be invited by president Cris Gabarrón and curator Juan García Sandoval of The Gabarron Foundation to exhibit his work in Valencia. The Gabarron Foundation and the City of Arts and Sciences of Valencia have been collaborating since 2010 to create this wonderful museum space, dedicated to sculptural art: the Umbracle, an open artistic space - designed by world renowned architect Santiago Calatrava - and an extension of the museum itself, known by many as the Paseo del Arte. It was with deep respect that Quinze accepted their invitation and created six sculptures for this exhibition.
For the new series of artworks, nature was once again Arne Quinze’s main inspiration. These sculptures are distillations of nature that appear to have grown organically as a result of continuous attractive and repulsive impulses with the aim of preserving a balance, albeit delicate. At first sight they may perhaps appear fragile, but they are nevertheless capable of withstanding this harsh dialogue. Their colour palette is broad and inspired by the abundance of tints Quinze finds in his wild flower garden. This exposes the contrast between the diversity of nature and the encroaching monotony of our often grey cities. Through his works, Arne Quinze calls on the viewer to protect or at least appreciate what nature has to offer. The most successful cities of the future will in fact seamlessly interweave culture and nature. By locating his artworks in cities, Arne Quinze is attempting to initiate a dialogue on this vital balance. He is for this reason delighted that the city of Valencia has invited him to install his works at this marvellous location – a true open-air museum – and is looking forward to the interaction between the city and his new works.
Gawleri Arne Quinze — 2019 Acrylic on aluminium 230x270x340cm (LxWxH) approx. 500kg
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Gawleri, from the My Secret Garden series, Paseo del Arte, Valencia.
Bellendenii Arne Quinze — 2019 Acrylic on aluminium 320x230x430cm (LxWxH) approx. 550kg — AQ 5 —
Dialogue
Miriam Atienza of the City of Arts & Sciences & Arne Quinze talk about the exhibition in Valencia. “I hope that visitors, when they see these installations, think along those lines. That is the little seed that I am planting in their heads.”
Hello Arne, and thank you for coming to Valencia and to the City of Arts and Sciences. This is your first time in Valencia, and in Spain, for a big exhibition, right? Yes, that’s true. It’s a great pleasure to be here, and in this particular setting. It’s perfectly in tune with my vision of transforming cities into open-air museums. I was particularly drawn to this place because it’s a place of encounters. And I think that art, and culture, can stimulate encounters. We tend to live in these compartmentalised little clubs. There is less and less communication, even with the shift towards the internet, WhatsApp, Facebook and all that, but people still live behind their walls. I’d like to turn our public spaces even more pleasant than our living rooms. What was your reason for coming here, and did
you make these sculptures especially for this space? What prompted you to come? It’s really a pleasure to have you with us. When you look at the space here, which is a very unique space, Calatrava has created a city within a city, and he has also created a space conducive to encounters. And that is what was enormously attractive to me, with people increasingly living cooped up inside, there is less and less physical contact, despite the huge amount of contact through social media, but I believe that we are still living in the heritage of the great visionaries, or nonvisionaries, who built cities in the 80s and 90s. The thing is that cities have become very inhuman, and places like this make cities more human, because people meet each other. And I believe that my work, what drives me in fact, is to render the beauty of
nature without actually rendering nature itself. My work is based on beauty, on the optimistic side of life, I am very optimistic, that’s why I use these colours. We can’t avoid the fact that climate change is happening, the waters are rising but then you have droughts, the planet is dying. With climate change, we always show the negative side. I try to show people the beauty of nature so that they realise that we must do everything possible to preserve it. Our cities are built in such an inhuman way that public spaces have become concrete; they are ugly. My big dream is to transform these public domains, by drawing on culture and on nature. Since I was born in 1971, man has destroyed more than 30% of the flora and fauna, which is why it’s so important to show the beauty of nature through the beauty of my sculptures. That idea runs through my work. Often, when we speak of cities or climate change, we adopt a negative
Miriam Atienza & Arne Quinze, Paseo del Arte, Valencia.
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Ramosissima Arne Quinze — 2019
Macronyx Arne Quinze — 2019
Acrylic on aluminium 340x210x580cm (LxWxH), approx.1350kg
Acrylic on aluminium 340x230x510cm (LxWxH) approx. 1200kg
perspective. For me it’s the opposite; I want to show the positive side through my forms, through colours, so that people will see that nature has such beauty that we must preserve it, that we must do something. I believe that if we change our public spaces into better places, more human, more natural places, we will bring out the humanity of cities. I think that’s really important for the future. I would like to know what you set out to do here. You’ve created different types of sculptures. How did you decide what you were going to do here? When I came here, it brought back a memory of a long trip to Iceland. When you travel across Iceland, there are all these volcanic mountains, and they’re black. For days and days we travelled across this black landscape, and the first signs of life that we saw were these little flowers, pushing up through the black lava. When I was here it was the opposite; everything is white, everything is beautiful, everything is clean-cut, and I thought about my flowers, I wanted to make organic flowers bloom here, colourful but nevertheless with a certain power. After all, nature has enormous power, and I wanted people to see, through my sculptures, the duality of nature, its fragility and its extreme power. When you look at the sculptures they could almost be made of paper, but they are made of aluminium, and to create them we used a big crane to bend them, and you feel the power that they exude. In my opinion, the contrast you’ve achieved through the colour works really well. I think that nature has colours for a reason. You see it in fruit; they are full of attractive colours so that we’re tempted to eat them. In nature, there are colours that are made to attract, but also colours made to frighten. The beauty that we see among the
Views on the sculptures by Arne Quinze and the architecture of the City of Arts & Sciences by Santiago Calatrava, Valencia.
animals, the play of colours, is very interesting, and it’s something we tend to forget. I believe that we need colours in cities. Cities have become very monotone, and wherever there is colour, people smile a little more, they feel more relaxed. And I believe that it’s important to encourage this way of thinking; I hope that visitors, when they see these installations, think along those lines. That is the little seed that I am planting in their heads, and I hope that a lot of ideas will grow from that seed. Here, we are in a public space, and yet there are so many visitors who come here who often don’t even venture into the museums; they just wander about.
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I think that it’s important to provide free access to things on the outside, to draw people’s attention so that they go inside the museums. And I believe that, thanks to what you are doing, we can draw visitors’ attention. It is so important because it really is too bad that only a small percentage of people visit museums and yet culture is one of the best ways of broadening our minds. And I believe that without this education, we’re gearing ourselves up for a very dull life, a negative kind of existence. We need this in our education, and museums have a very important role to play. But museums are always hidden behind these
four big walls and these little doors. And sometimes it’s difficult to push open those doors. My great mission in life is to transform public spaces into cultural spaces, where we can exchange ideas, even if the artist isn’t your cup of tea. We artists aren’t here to make sculptures that everyone likes, but from such time as it triggers a conversation, a discussion, we’ve achieved our mission. I hope that, through these installations that we’ve placed here, people will be more interested in coming to see what’s happening inside. I think that this is one of the duties of museums, to break out of their walls, to go back into the cities. They shouldn’t wait for the people to come to them, but rather they themselves have to go out and find the people; they are the ones who should be injecting culture into cities. That is so important. We have the museum of science, which is interactive, and if you grab the attention of someone who goes on to touch something, he will experiment with that thing. With sculptures as well, you can provoke emotions - if, in the museum of science, you can attract attention in that way, with art, you can trigger this reaction in the person as well.
Macronyx & Collina — Arne Quinze, Paseo del Arte, City of Arts & Sciences, Valencia.
I got the inspiration to get where I am today when I was fifteen years old. I lived in Brussels, which in the 80s was such a grey and sad city, and they had built a new underground station. I remember going into the tunnels on the day and night before they opened the underground station. There was the train, the carriages, all nice and shiny and new, but very grey. I painted the whole thing, from beginning to end, with plenty of colour. The next day, the day of the opening, the train came into the station. All the officials were there, the ministers, the mayor, the politicians, to cut the ribbon, and there was the train, full of colours. A lot of people said it was pretty, and there was something jolly about it. Others said it was horrible, that it was vandalism, a massacre. I was there in the crowd, with my hands still covered in paint, hidden in my pockets. There was something magical about what happened there, the people who loved it and who didn’t love it at all were all talking to each other, all communicating. There was an energy going through there. And when I saw that, I told myself, that is what I want to do, I’m going to make people communicate through art. And after my graffiti, I very quickly came to understand that I wanted to change public spaces with my big sculptures, and if that creates an emotion, if it draws people in, if they talk to each other, then we, the creators, have won.
Bellendenii — Arne Quinze, Paseo del Arte, City of Arts & Sciences, Valencia.
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How did you become an artist? Because of things like that, or were you born this way? I was born like this. Being an artist isn’t a choice, you either are one or you’re not, it’s something that flows in your veins, it’s something that is there, that is present, that we cannot escape, and that has to come out. With some, it comes out more than others, but for me, it’s my life, my passion. I was wondering whether the artist is an instrument to bring out the art that people need at a certain moment, at this point in time, because each era has a different idea of art, or it is just a question of the artist doing what he likes, which has nothing to do with what is going on around him. What’s your take on that? I believe that there are two things. First of all, I make art because I have it under my skin, and it has to come out. Secondly, I am truly a child of the planet. My great passion is nature, my flowers; around my house I’ve planted more than 6,000 flowers and plants, just to study them to know how to create the sculptures that I make today, but I also have to send a message to politicians with my work. I hope that today’s politicians won’t go down in history as the ones that destroyed the planet. With my art, I want to show the beauty of nature, to make them aware that if they don’t take very concrete and dramatic steps, we will remember them as the politicians that destroyed the planet. I try to create a positive dialogue through this work; that is my personal mission. If we have no more
planet, there won’t be any more point making art. You could say that you are an instrument to bring out what we need right now. I do see myself as an instrument, but I miss the romantic side of cities. Before, romanticism was a good thing, it was pretty, it was joyous, it was romantic. And today we hardly have any more of this romance. Everything has become superficial. I believe we need romanticism in our lives. We need this nature, this balance. Active romanticism, not passive? Active romanticism. I believe that I am there to fight, absolutely! Let’s get back to the sculptures that you make. When you set out to make them, do you have an idea of how they’re going to turn out, or is it a gradual evolution? How does the process of the sculptures’ creation work? My work is an evolution that never stops. It evolves constantly, but what you see behind us is a study that was made over years to get to this point. Beforehand, I do a lot of research through my plants, through the architecture and chemistry of plants, through their energy, through the physical side. Nature is a life with extremes that take off in every direction. When you study that, you step into a world that is absolutely marvellous. But before getting to that point, there is
a lot of drawing, a lot of mock-ups, a long search that helps me to create what you see before you here. To wrap up, I hope that this will be a success, and I hope that we will succeed in knowing and seeing that people can change, and I also hope that you will be satisfied. Was it a challenge for you to do this exhibition? Was it a challenge to come here? What did it mean for you? It was a challenge, because normally I tend to create large-scale installations, and here it was the opposite because there is an enormous competition in this environment, just look at Calatrava’s work, which is superb, and exudes an incredible power. The challenge was not to pit myself against this architectural power, but rather to play with it. I believe that just by creating something this small, and my sculptures aren’t particularly small, they are six or seven metres high, I believe that there is a balance with their environment. It’s the same with flowers. Just like a tree with flowers blossoming on it, the flowers are what make the tree more beautiful, and I hope that my flowers enhance the architecture that we see behind us. Finally, what kind of reaction do you want to see in a passer-by who comes across your sculptures. One thing: a smile.
“With climate change, we always show the negative side. I try to show people the beauty of nature so that they realise that we must do everything possible to preserve it.” Arne Quinze
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Inspiration
MY GARDEN
The development of the series of “My Secret Garden” paintings and sculptures was preceded by a great quest. Arne Quinze started this project around 6 years ago by planting a flower meadow of more than 6000 plants and flowers around his house, achieving a complete metamorphosis in order to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of nature. How do plants grow, develop and behave? How do they evolve through the seasons? What is the symbiotic relationship between different plants? And above all, how do they influence us? Quinze worked, arranged and researched his own garden in an almost romantic way, following in the footsteps of the great Impressionist Monet in order to arrive at a moment of knowledge and insight, thus allowing him to paint freely and without constraints.
Save the bees! The transfer of pollen can be done by the wind, birds, bats, mammals and of course insects; one of the most important of these are the honey bees that pollinate on a huge commercial scale. All sorts of fruit and vegetables are pollinated by honey bees, such as broccoli and squash, apples and almonds. Pollination is not just important for the food we eat directly, it’s vital for the foraging crops, such as field beans and clover, used to feed the livestock we depend on for meat. Just as importantly, it helps to feed many other animals in the food chain and maintains the genetic diversity of the flowering plants. One third of our food is pollination dependent. But honey bees are disappearing globally at an alarming rate due to pesticides, parasites, disease and habitat loss. So let’s start with having a wild flower garden each for our own! Green lawns are so boring and overrated!
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Twelve Months
February 2019 will also see the introduction of a 12-piece ‘My Secret Garden’ painting, a real magnum opus inspired by the changes that nature confronts us with through the seasons. — AQ 12 —
Taking a break after finishing the 12 panels of ‘Twelve Months’, Deinze, Belgium
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Diversity
The pursuit of variation and diversity is both a statement and a leitmotiv that runs through Arne Quinze’s work “the sculptures and installations call for a retention of diversity”
In each of Arne Quinze’s recent works we encounter a seemingly chaotic confrontation between individual elements that form an integral part of a biotope that is created in laboratory conditions and is multiplied organically. The variety of colour and form is as wide as the viewer’s imagination. The artist hereby depicts a society as a coherent and intact ecosystem, a sampling of nature, which is his chief inspiration. In this way, the sculptures and installations call for a retention of diversity and pluralism, and for experiment and cross-fertilisation. This is a clear indictment of the present trend towards monocultures and soured relations. Bringing people back together again: according to Quinze, this should be the ultimate objective of public art. After an initial surprising impression, a sculpture is able to refine the threshold of acceptance for the passer-by, by flying in the face of the norm – norms lead only to monotonous grey cities. Just as in the artworks, and just as in nature, cities should aim for a symbiosis of numerous organisms, which in their turn fuel conversation and consequently the conservation of their future. In fact the artist quite literally challenges monocultures. With his garden as a scale model, an explosion of life with the rampant splendour of flowers, the pursuit of variation and diversity is both a statement and a leitmotiv that runs through his work. The fact that we have already destroyed 30% of existing flora and fauna since Quinze’s birth in 1971 is abhorrent to him. It is in everyone’s interest to protect and restore ecosystems. Welding & painting the ‘My secret Garden, Valencia’ sculptures, Deinze, Belgium
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Works overview “Driven by the force of nature and with the urge to guide our cities towards a better future” As an international renowned contemporary artist, Arne Quinze has more that 20 years of experience in buildig large scale public art installations globally. With a professional team of architects, structural engineers, project managers, producers in his ateliers of Ghent (Belgium), Shanghai (China) and Los Angeles (USA) he managed to succesfully integrate unconventional public installations in the public spaces of Belgium (Cityscape, The Sequence - Brussels), Germany (The Traveller Munich), France (Camille - Rouen, Rock Strangers), Lebanon (The Visitor - Beirut), China (Red Beacon - Shanghai), Brazil (Matarazzo - Sao Paulo) the USA (Uchronia - Nevada, Timegate- NewYork, Whispers - San Antonio, Scarlet, Washington, D.C.), among others.
“We have to return to creating a personal awareness and involvement in the public space, with everyone that lives, works and spends his free time in a city. This is everyone’s responsibility and has to be communicated clearly. A large part of this responsibility needs to be shouldered by our builders and architects. They need to be aware that robust and properly excecuted projects are necessary and need to provide results over the long term, instead of being aimed to provide a quick profit. Realising beautiful and high quality projects will result in more pleasant environments and foster a feeling of involvement amongst the city’s inhabitants. A more beautiful city will ensure that people take better care of it.”
Uchronia, Nevada, USA
Cityscape, Brussels, BE
The Visitor, Beirut, Lebanon
Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Red Beacon, Shanghai, China
Rock Strangers, Oostende, BE
Matarazzo, Sao Paolo, Brazil
Mamac museum, Nice, France
Jungle cities, LA, USA
Belfius Collection, Brussels, BE
Deloitte, Zaventem, BE
The Passenger, Mons, BE
Louisiana Museum, USA
Scarlet, Washington DC, USA
Arts museum, Valencia, Spain Marta Herford museum, Germany
Whispers, Enschede, NL
Arts museum, Valencia, Spain
Liège, BE
Liège, BE
One World, Boom, BE
Upcoming
Private
Paris, France
Private
Private — AQ 16 —
Shanghai, China
UPCOMING: Mumbai, India
Scarlet, installation by Arne Quinze in front of the Kennedy Center, Sequoia, Washington DC, USA
UPCOMING: Creutz, Luxembourg
California, USA
UPCOMING: Tupi, Sao Paolo, Brazil — AQ 17 —
LUPINES Sculptures.
“My Secret Garden Sculptures” is a new series of medium-sized sculptures that embody Arne Quinze’s research on the diversity of nature. With the works The Chatelain, Lobelia, Lupine, Persicaria,... the artist focuses on different questions in the evolution of anthropology through botany. The unbridled evolutionary force of plants to develop into a broad spectrum of diverse forms, structures and colours are the basis for Arne Quinze’s visual storytelling. The “Lupines” series is the artist’s attempt to capture the power of nature and to shift our focus back to the importance of our relationship with nature.
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Ludmilla 194x95x73cm HxLxW
Papilionoidae 130x76x40cm HxLxW
UPCOMING: 720x230x190cm HxLxW
Lupine sculptures exhibition, Maruani Mercier Gallery Brussels
Lupinus Angustifolius 145x50x40cm HxLxW
Arcticus 180x84x59cm HxLxW
Lupine sculptures exhibition, Maruani Mercier Gallery Brussels
Russel 150x45x55cm HxLxW
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Lupine 230x76x73cm HxLxW
The Chatelain 230x72x64cm HxLxW
The “Lupines” series is the artist’s attempt to capture the power of nature and to shift our focus back to the importance of our relationship with nature.
Persicaria 200x85x85cm HxLxW
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Avalune 191x59x69cm HxLxW
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My Secret Garden paintings
Inspired by his garden, Arne Quinze depicts nature’s vivacity, diversity, and beauty in a major series of paintings called “My Secret Garden”.
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“My Secret garden” is an exuberant and explosive series, full of dynamics, colour, diversity and composition spread over several canvases. Enormous canvases of expressive and explosive colour, and smaller canvases hinting at a poetic and almost feminine romanticism. With his “My Secret Garden” series, Arne Quinze lays himself
bare to the viewer. He demonstrates the search, the commitment and the fight that led him to the perfect Secret Garden. “My Secret Garden” is a very personal series, and perhaps for that very reason, most can identify with it. The ultimate challenge is to engage viewers to look into their own inner selves and discover their own Secret Garden.
“The ultimate challenge is to engage the viewers to discover their own secret garden”
Arne Quinze in his atelier, Deinze
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Upcoming
At the heart of São Paulo, the Cidade Matarazzo is planned for completion by 2020. The project aims to become São Paulo’s new symbol and “a gigantic pool of brazilianity”. What is Cidade Matarazzo? A new hub for the city • 30 million visitors expected per year • 120,000 guests at the Rosewood hotel • 30 to 40,000 visitors per day for the organic market • 5,000 visitors per day for the convention centre and cultural spaces A responsible, durable, and social project • 10,000 trees planted • 400 urban farms involved in the market • 4,000 jobs created for people in reintegration • 69 nano-shops showcasing Brazilian artisans
Arne Quinze created Tupi, a Brazilian totem, for a project under the architectural guidance of Jean Nouvel and Rudy Ricciotti. Brazil is a land of migration. And this is particularly true in São Paulo. As Alexandre Allard — the initiator of the project — points out, “it’s a land of religious, cultural and natural diversity. São Paulo is the first black city in America, the second Italian city after Rome, the second Japanese city after Tokyo, but also the first Lebanese city before Beirut.” Committed to pay tribute to the 100 communities living in São Paulo,
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Belgian artist Arne Quinze imagined Tupi, the highest contemporary sculpture in the world. This major artwork will provide the city the symbol it deserves. Christelle Granja: You designed a monumental 75-metre-high multicoloured sculpture that will stand at the entrance of Cidade Matarazzo. How will Tupi be a totem?
Arne Quinze: Tupi embodies the fabulous Brazilian diversity, unique in the world. The sculpture is named after the Tupis who are the original inhabitants of Brazil. So it is a tribute to the past, but even something more: Tupis are still very much present today in the Paulistanos’ DNA. São Paulo is my favourite city, here I feel the same energy as in the New York of the 1980s. A strength and an extraordinary creativity are blossoming here today. And yet when we look at this economical capital on Google it just shows ugly grey buildings. Rio de Janeiro has its Christ the Redeemer, but what about São Paulo? I wish to give the city a symbol its inhabitants can be proud of: a totem of its diversity with a worldwide reach. Tupi must be worthy of São Paulo, of its strength and its dynamics: it will be 75 metres high, built with some 800 tons of steel! My biggest sculpture yet. In this the work shares the ambition of Cidade Matarazzo, an international showcase of Brazilian nature and creativity. CG: Reintroducing the beauty of nature in an urban setting is ever-present in your work. Is this again the case with Tupi? AQ: Since 1971, we humans have succeeded in destroying 30% of the fauna and the flora. It seems to me essential to instill colour in our cities to reconnect with Nature. The image of the parrot, typical of the local fauna, seemed obvious for embodying this Brazilian exuberance. Tupi will be a multicoloured radiance that will contrast with the grey of the surrounding buildings, breaking the monotony of the huge Paulista Avenue and highlighting the amazing MASP, the museum designed by Lina Bo Bardi, another Brazil lover. To recreate this closeness to nature we must foster a connection between this sculpture and Brazilians. In addition to its role as a city landmark, passers-by will be able to stroll among its steel pillars and beams. Besides, every nationality and culture will be at home here: for its inauguration each tribe, each community, will be able to offer a symbol that will be engraved or integrated in the sculpture. Oskar Metsavaht, the founder of Brazilian brand Osklen and UNESCO goodwill ambassador, is guiding me in this jungle of human diversity to be able to perform this essential participative aspect of Tupi.
An urban forest The concept for Cidade Matarazzo, São Paulo’s new green lung, is simple: take an opposite stance from the concrete urban landscape built over the last 30 years, bury road traffic, improve mobility, work with nature to remedy the city’s pollution, buffer noise pollution and plant over 10,000 trees and thereby create a genuine urban forest in the very heart of the city. Landscape architect Benedito Abbud describes the chosen concept: “a luxuriant vegetation and a broad diversity of forms and textures, to create distinct spaces and unusual perspectives, which will surprise and enchant visitors along their journey.”
Arne Quinze, Alexandre Allard & Jean Nouvel — AQ 26 —
Rudy Ricciotti contributing architect
“I advocate a territorialised production, and this project is based on the idea of resisting the damaging effects of globalisation,” Rudy Ricciotti claims. Thanks to the use of concrete the architect can create this desired proximity with a social, economic, and cultural environment: Brazil. Architecture through material... and territory.
Jean Nouvel contributing architect
“What struck me first was precisely the surrounding tower blocks; they have nothing in common with the maternity ward. Moreover, these tall buildings aren’t characteristic of any particular city. All I can see is the automatic reproduction of an international mode, mindlessly airdropped without any sense of place. I wanted nothing to do with these towers. As you draw near Matarazzo, and upon entering, what strikes you is the microclimate that dominates the place. Tall trees create a sheltered space that is particularly inspiring. So I decided to further the spirit of the place, the soul of this small paradise made out of tall trees. I have envisioned the antithesis of São Paulo’s towers.”