Roger Anger and Le Corbusier
Photos by Philippe Vigoureux
Citadines Centre d’Art
Gallery I
…and the ranges of grey come to settle happiness in the sensitive surface
20 October to 1th November 2018
Opening day 20 October 4.30 PM to 7.00 PM
Every day 2.30 PM to 5.30 PM – Sundays closed
ROGER ANGER ET LE CORBUSIER
Photo exhibition by Philippe Vigoureux
Centre d’Art, Citadines
From 20th of October till 1st of November
Opening Saturday 4.30 PM
After Eric Chacra, Centre d’Art Citadines continues with another photographic
exhibition, this time with French photographer Philippe Vigoureux.
For lovers of photography and architecture, this exhibition is a must see. The subject is
very interesting in its content and very moving in its analogy, beauty and poetry.
Twenty-four black and white analog photographs of buildings designed by Roger Anger
and six of the work of world famous architect Le Corbusier are on display, all taken with
a Laica and a 50mm lens. (A 50mm lens gives a field of view similar to what we see
with our eyes.)
Philippe started his professional journey in 1975 in Paris, where he learnt experimental
cinema. He describes this way of looking at life through the lens of experimental cinema
(inverse of fiction cinema) as pure poetry and also as an analogy to abstract art, like a
painting of Kandinsky, where you observe “the mental”. As a reminiscence of his
cinema time, one of his movies is part of this exhibition: ”California Street” made in 1977
in San Francisco.
What makes this exhibition so remarkable is the subtle affinity between the work of the
two architects: Roger Anger and Le Corbusier. In her book “Roger Anger: Research on
beauty”, Anupama Kundoo reveals that his inspiration was Le Corbusier, and this
influenced the design of the Matrimandir, with its splendid ramps going up and down, a
signature that Le Corbusier gave in his designs for Villa Roche and Villa Savoye around
the Paris area.
Between lines, forms, shapes and shadows, the viewer gets lost in a rhyme created by
a paradox of structures, a slight rigidity and the softness of round curves. At the peak of
his compositions and lines, Philippe delivers a photo of the magnificent oratory of the
French convent of La Tourette designed by Le Corbusier, with its outstanding pyramid
shaped roofs, leaving the spectator emotionally elated by its ingenuity and beauty.
The entire exhibition is an allegory to architecture, with even the famous Finnish
architect Alvar Alto coming into the picture, with a photo of a little girl and a tree. But
mostly it is about the vision and the similarity of two men: Roger Anger and Le
Corbusier, both of them painters and sculptors and both of them architects in France
and India (Roger Anger in Auroville; Le Corbusier in Chandigarh).
Furthermore, it is a reflection of what modern architecture has to offer in one of its
highest expression of art, beauty and spirituality through the lens of the remarkably pure
photography of Philippe Vigoureux.
I’m already interested to see the fruits of Philippe’s next project: “The Mahabharata",
which will focus on sculptures of Krishna and Ganesh in Indian temples.
Chana Corinne Devor for AVArt Service