Le Quadrilatère – Centre d’art de Beauvais presents the first retrospective dedicated to the Mexican artist and architect Santiago Borja. The exhibition retraces the experimental career of this extraordinary creator, based on a dialogue between art, textiles and architecture.
Santiago Borja, Sitio exhibition at Villa Savoye © Santiago Borja, 2011
Born in 1970, Santiago Borja is an internationally acclaimed artist whose work has been presented at various architecture biennials, from Chicago to Rotterdam. He has also distinguished himself through his artistic interventions in iconic sites of twentieth-century modernist architecture, such as Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye and Richard Neutra’s Villa VDL.
Santiago Borja avec Maddalena Forcella et El Camino de los Altos Tzotzil Weaving Cooperative, 2010, Los Angeles.
The exhibition is spread over almost 1,500 m2 and aims to reveal the conceptual and aesthetic confrontations developed by the artist between Amerindian cultures and Western modernity.
Suspended Cosmosgonia (SITIO), 2011
SSL du Totemic Sampler (wood, wool, cotton), 2018, work produced at Atelier Calder, Saché. Views of the exhibition. Photos Salim Santa Lucia. Le Quadrilatère 2021
SSL du Totemic Sampler (wood, wool, cotton), 2018, work produced at Atelier Calder, Saché.
The artist’s approach questions our perception of objects and architectures that are emblematic of twentieth-century Western culture: Sigmund Freud’s couch, a villa by Le Corbusier, minimalist motifs by the artist Sol Lewitt… With each intervention, he deconstructs the representations attached to these “modern icons ” to weave new meanings in the light of other traditions and beliefs.
Suprasensible – Astral bodies and invisible planes, 2015-2020. Views of the exhibition. Photos Salim Santa Lucia. Le Quadrilatère 2021
Jungcatcher II, installation, 2020. Co-produced by Le Quadrilatère and Frac Grand Large. Views of the exhibition. Photos Salim Santa Lucia. Le Quadrilatère 2021
Suprasensible – Astral bodies and invisible planes, 2015-2020
Suprasensible – Astral bodies and invisible planes, 2015-2020
The exhibition is extended by a dozen works from the collection of the Frac Grand Large – Hauts-de-France that resonate with Santiago Borja’s questioning of ‘spiritual geometry’, space and its perception. Linked to the minimal art movement, these works are by major twentieth-century artists such as Daniel Buren, André Cadere, Hans Haacke, Ugo Rondinone, Aurélie Nemours and Ettore Sottsass.
Daniel Buren, La Cabane éclatée n°10 (detail), 1984-1985. Frac Grand Large collection. Views of the exhibition. Photos Salim Santa Lucia. Le Quadrilatère 2021
Ettore Sottsass, Asteroid, 1968. Frac Grand Large collection. Views of the exhibition. Photos Salim Santa Lucia. Le Quadrilatère 2021
Exhibition curator
Lucy HOFBAUER – director of the Quadrilatère – Centre d’art de Beauvais
Aurélien VERNANT – director of Architecture de Collection
Le Quadrilatère, Beauvais art centre
At the foot of Beauvais’s Gothic cathedral, the Quadrilatère carries out an artistic and cultural project that weaves a unique link between art and architecture through history and heritage to contemporary experimentation.
This art centre is housed in a modernist monument built in 1976 by André Hermant, a member of the Union des Artistes Modernes, to exhibit tapestries. Its remarkable 20th-century architecture rises above the superbly preserved archaeological remains of the town. The Chatillon architects agency has been commissioned to restructure the building in March 2021.
Le Quadrilatère, Laurent Kronental photographer, 2020
Le Quadrilatère, Laurent Kronental photographer, 2020
Practical info
Until 19 September 2021
1 rue Philippe de Dreux
60000 Beauvais
Timetable :
Tuesday to Friday: 1pm – 6pm
Saturday and Sunday: 10am – 6pm
Close on Mondays
Free Entry
Contact:
T : 06 81 98 79 25
M : contact-quadri@beauvais.fr