For one summer, the New York darling of design and contemporary art is moving to the MAMO on the roof of the Cité Radieuse in Marseille. In partnership with Galerie Perrotin, this art center, founded by Ora Ito, hosts the site-specific exhibition, “The Basketball Modulor.”

In this singular work, Arsham explores themes that are specific to him, such as the concept of time, the relationship to history, but also sport, including basketball. The installation takes place in a room that was historically used as a gymnasium. With references to the colors of the Unité d’Habitation and to the proportions of the “Modulor,” a system of measurements conceived by the famous French architect Le Corbusier, Daniel Arsham works on this idea of scale, while emphasizing the linear aspect of time. Thus, the exhibition room takes up the yellow and blue of Le Corbusier, his sun motifs, to which basketballs have been associated, used on banners, a flag and on the court. Erosion, an essential concept in Arsham’s work, is to be found in sculpted balls placed in structures reminiscent of the famous LC4. Finally, on the roof terrace, the New Yorker has chosen to install a series of bronze sculptures evoking several periods of history, such as Greece and Ancient Rome. They are adorned with signs of erosion in crystal, and will be exposed to the elements at the top of the Cité Radieuse, the emblematic building of the Phocaean city. 

“The Modulor of Basketball” at the MAMO Centre d’Art de la Cité Radieuse until September 25

Modulor

Lisa Agostini