Les Lieux imaginaires - Exhibition

How and where will we live in the future? This question has always been one of mankind's greatest challenges. Today, it is more important than ever, as we reach the limits of what the earth can accommodate. What will homes and habitats, communities and cities, and leisure facilities look like for generations to come?

Artists and architects have always explored the possibilities and limits of the environment in which we live. Some have revered the present, seeking to perpetuate what exists. Others have drawn lessons from the past to create visions for the future. Today, artificial intelligence is opening up revolutionary prospects.

With the exhibition Imaginary Places, the Château de Lourmarin will confront visitors with many such images and ideas. It will bring together the works of various artists and architects. Of course, there will be fiction. There will also be visions inspired by practical realities, by our most pressing needs of today and tomorrow. A common feature: the value of looking to the past while considering how modern materials and technologies can generate a sustainable future. In short, these are scenarios for new generations, based on a deep understanding of the past.

Few historical figures have influenced our understanding of classical architecture - particularly that of ancient Rome - as much as the Italian architect, artist and engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi, known as Piranesi. His works form an important part of the collection of the Robert Laurent Vibert Foundation, housed at the Château. Piranesi's precise and fascinating images are the main source of inspiration for two of the artists whose works will be widely exhibited.

Sergei Tchoban is not only co-director of a major architectural practice in Berlin, but also founder of the Museum of Architectural Drawing in the same city. Born in St. Petersburg in 1962, he has always been fascinated by the need to combine modernity with the classical structures that have survived in historic city centers. His vivid paintings and drawings transport us directly from the images of Piranesi to the stimulating concepts of a new Rome.
sergeitchoban.com

Laurent de Troïl, born in Paris in 1953, is a talented artist and printmaker whose refined, finely observed etchings of real and imaginary cities, churches and ports are largely inspired by Piranesi. Artist-in-residence at the Château de Lourmarin in 1987, de Troïl also spent time at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid, in Marseille and at the Abbaye de La Prée, near Bourges, before establishing his etching studio in Lus la Croix Haute.

Bjarke Ingels Group is an architectural practice based in Copenhagen. Responsible for some of the most visionary examples of modern global architecture, it has designed dazzling buildings all over the world: the Danish pavilion at the 2010 World Expo, the Lego House in Billund, the new Two World Trade Center tower in New York, the Google headquarters in London, and Telosa, a futuristic city project in the American Desert.
big.dk

Manas Bhatia is an architect and digital artist from Dehradun, India. He creates innovative organic structures that blend nature, ancestral knowledge and technology. He has been recognized worldwide as a pioneer in exploring the potential of artificial intelligence in architecture and design.
www.manasbhatia.com

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