E P H E M E R A

EPHEMERA

la beauté

FESTIVAL DES ARCHITECTURES VIVES, MONTPELLIER 2019

Matteo J. da Lisca

Giulia Crotti

Derin Canturk

Marco De Donno

EPHEMERA

team

concept

We’re a heterogeneous team of young architects formed during our university years in Politecnico di Milano. We boast of our diverse origins, from south to north of Italy, from Turkey to USA. Our cultural pluralism, in which many traditions and tastes merge and submerge each other, is the strength of our identity. Each of us independently collaborated in the design and construction projects of various scales: furnitures, installations and buildings.

We strongly believe that Beauty can change and save the world: this is why we want to be a part of FAV 2019, dedicated to the theme of Beauty. We immediately thought that our temporary installation should represent a metaphor of the present moment considered in its transience and illusion and we focused on the idea Ephemerality. Usually, the term “ephemeral” is used to describe objects, natural or artificial, that last for only a temporary period. Its etymology is from Ancient Greek “ephemeros”, and his phonetics remains almost unaltered in many languages like Ancient Latin, Romance languages, English and Esperanto. Our installation EPHEMERA aspires to be a message that can be received by anyone through its experience.

The inspiration comes from a family of mayflies, the Ephemeridae. They are insects that die after living just one day and they have a distinctively patterned wings which for us represents an emblematic example of delicacy and beauty in nature. Their wing’s microstructure interferes with light creating an effect of iridescence: a phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change colour as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. This phenomenon is what we want to reproduce in our installation through its materiality.

The iridescent different sized objects that are the basic elements of our installation will be positioned in the courtyard creating random silhouettes, while from a single point of view they will reconstruct the inscription EPHEMERA, shimmering a spectrum of colors under changing light conditions. The anamorphic installation produces diverse effects based on many variables: light, position, reflection and movement. Something that therefore must be discovered through the experience of space. Something that amazes for its beauty.

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LA COUR ANAMORPHIQUE Hôtel d’Aurès, Montpellier

COMPOSING E P H E M E R A

Each nylon thread is tied to the ground with a small pebble that, in addition to helping to maintain its position, becomes a metaphor as opposed to the lightness of the entire installation.

The support structure is formed by a steel wire mesh on which the nylon threads are hung.

Each element represents a geometric and material abstraction of the wing scale, base units of the iridescent microstructure of the mayfly’s wings.

iridescent surfaces steel wire

nylon thread

mirrored surface

pebble

EPHEMERA

Hôtel d’Aurès, Montpellier

EPHEMERA

« Ce qui est BEAU, c’est ce qu’on saisit alors que ça passe. C’est la configuration éphémère des choses au moment où on en voit en même temps la beauté et la mort. Est-ce que ça veut dire que c’est comme ça qu’il faut mener sa vie ? Toujours en équilibre entre la beauté et la mort, le mouvement et sa disparition ? C’est peut-être ça, être vivant : traquer des instants qui meurent. »

« The beauty is what we get when it’s passing. It’s the ephemeral configuration of things when you see beauty and death together.

Does this mean that this is living? Always in balance between beauty and death, between movement and its disappearance? It could be like this, being alive: chasing moments that are dying. »

Muriel Barbery L’élégance du hérisson