Felice Varini: La Villette en Suites Paintingsselice Varini

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Felice Varini

La Villette en Suites Paintings

Grande Halle & Pavillon Paul-Delouvrier

Parc de la Villette

Mtro: Porte de Pantin

April 15 - September 13, 2015

Published at Hyperallergic as

A Geometry of Spatial Illusionhttp://hyperallergic.com/233014/a-geometry-of-spatial-illusion/

Felice Varini is a site-specific geometric abstract painter who works on communal three-

dimensional space in the vein of the site-specific conceptual installations of Daniel Buren and

Niele Toroni. His environmental paintings can only be experienced in architectural space.

Varinis technique includes a light projection of a geometric drawing cast into an actual space and

then pictorially retraced on the surfaces and painted in.

Four of them are now temporarily on view at the Parc de la Villette, which is a very large space

freely open to the public. They are temporary public artworks, but I found the work at the same

time private, due the personal view-point choices made by each individual. Some folks I observed

raced for the point of cohesion where a geometric form snaps into lucidity. Others linger more in

the broken-up side views (as I did). To be looked at in the Pavillon Paul-Delouvrier, three La

Villette en Suites Paintingsmust be entered into and moved around in. That is the only way of

getting these meticulous in situ wall paintings. Take that, homogeneous three-dimensional

material reality!

But the phenomenological getting there of the getting it holds most the attraction of this

work, as once I discovered the vantage point at which a coherent geometric form congeals, I felt aslightso whatmovement in my mind, as if encountering a gimmick. What is interesting is how he

uses architectural surfaces to create his spatial paintingsi.e. installation art, not the geometric

forms per say. What is enjoyable is that moment of getting to the trompe l'oeil pictorial gestalt

that achieves a reduction of actual space into a virtual two-dimensional image through

juxtaposing two incompatible modes of perceptual interpretation. I found the eventually


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perceived geometric logic to be a moment of closure without much remuneration, thus the least

interesting instant, even though customary perception of space ischallenged by the inclusion of

these bright geometric signs.

Rouge jaune noir bleu entre les disques et les trapezes (2015) side entrance view detail,

installed in 1,000 square meter building Pavillon Paul-Delouvrier


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Rouge jaune noir bleu entre les disques et les trapezes (2015) side view, installed in 1,000

square meter building Pavillon Paul-Delouvrier


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Rouge jaune noir bleu entre les disques et les trapezes (2015) front view, installed in 1,000

square meter building Pavillon Paul-Delouvrier

When moving through Rouge jaune noir bleu entre les disques et les trapezes (2015), for

example, the painting offers up kinetic, even ramshackle, super-cubist focal points. The color

forms promised in the title are only delivered as coherent after navigating a considerable distance.

Passing through the temporal experience of the work stresses the relational truth of perception.


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Sept carrs pour sept colonnes (2015) side view

Sept carrs pour sept colonnes (2015) front view, installed in 1,000 square meter building

Pavillon Paul-Delouvrier


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Sept carrs pour sept colonnes (2015) is more of an investigation of vision than an investigation

of painting, thus reframing the fundamental principles of painting. The center of the image is

composed of a geometric void, much like our cognitive experiences. This work reminded me that

every visual path is also a path of meaning. Even from the correct vantage point, the blue image

maintains its multi-centered, fragmentary character.

With it I experienced a reversal of three-dimensionality and two-dimensionality. I felt with my

body an inseparable unfaithfulness reminiscent of the breakdowns and recompositions

encountered when on acid. The figure-ground relationships are not fully ranked in hierarchical

terms, and the gaze is anything but immobilized.

Quatorze triangles percs/penchs (2015) partial view (1) installed in 1,000 square meter

building Pavillon Paul-Delouvrier


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Quatorze triangles percs/penchs (2015) partial view (2) installed in 1,000 square meter

building Pavillon Paul-Delouvrier


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Quatorze triangles percs/penchs (2015) full view installed in 1,000 square meter building

Pavillon Paul-Delouvrier

When entering the Pavillon Paul-Delouvrier, on the right, Quatorze triangles percs/penchs is

first perceived as a huge bright decoupage. The game of Quatorze triangles percs/penchs is to

find the correct vantage point where forms snap into place as described in the title. Like the other

two works, I explored here the diversity of viewpoints where I could see and feel the breaking up

and coming together of planes and volumes, figures and surfaces.

Inversely, the orange spiral geometrical form of the largest painting, Arcs de cercle sur

diagonale (2015), interplays with outdoor architecture of the Grande Halle on such a scale (it

ends on the walls of the Cit de la Musique) that it does away with traditional framing devices.

The pleasure of this work lies in the phenomenological perspectives entertained on a long walk

within its multiplicity of kinetic viewpoints. Its initial le voilmoment is the way I first discovery

Varinis work with his Vingt-trois disques vids plus douze moitis et quatre quarts (2013) at

theDynamo Grand Palais show. I turned a corner and there it all was, hanging in front of me,

already snapped into place. This is how his work is usually photographed.


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Vingt-trois disques vids plus douze moitis et quatre quarts (2013) ExpositionDynamo,

Grand Palais Paris 2013, Photo Andr Morin

So with Arcs de cercle sur diagonale, I started out with cohesion (albeit impressed with its

scale) and as I walked through it I observed it breaking down. Which was a pleasurable

experience.


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Arcs de cercle sur diagonale (2015) front view 1


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Arcs de cercle sur diagonale (2015) front view 2


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Arcs de cercle sur diagonale (2015) details


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Arcs de cercle sur diagonale (2015) close detail


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The succession of temporary formations I experienced within Arcs de cercle sur diagonale

reflect multiple vantage points and thus the discontinuous, contradictory nature of human

perception. The airy shift between viewing the figurative plane and the physical space reminded

me of certain strategies found in the field of analytical sculpture as influenced by Minimal Art,

such as that by Fred Sandback.

But it was also hard not to perceive this way of working as another potential extravagant way of

juxtaposing real estate and contemporary art; something that is more and more driven by

commercial investment interests. This is something that standardizes and flattens out both much

public space and much art. In that real estate developers increasingly use a branding method that

relies heavily on architecture and art conjoining, I am worried that Varinis technique, while not

guilty here, combines real estate and art so seamlessly that great caution must be taken with it.

Yes the works simplicity qualms me, as today art has become the dumb bellwether of a branding

style heralded by developers of high-end real estate, like condominiums. They see art as

synonymous with prestige and thus a refined marketing tool for brand identities.

Art as branding, seen up close in the painted fragments of architectural detail in Arcs de cercle

sur diagonale forced me to look for the real in the virtual image, prompting my gaze to linger

over the material differentiations of the surfaces texture variations. In Arcs de cercle sur

diagonale I was no longer looking for a vantage point, but coming across fragments of a logo-

like geometrical figure. This enhanced my understanding of depth of field and its vanishing, a

vanishing that must include consideration of artistic communities, such as the one that I have both

witnessed and experienced on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

As such Varinis La Villette en Suites Paintings offer up a cautionary tale about both the use of

painting and its spatial dispersal. Perhaps the time has come to designate new cultural objectives

for it.

Joseph Nechvatal

Felice Varini: La Villette en Suites Paintingsselice Varini

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