If you walk along Place de la Pointe in Pantin you'll find artorks stuck on the ground that immortalise the transformation of the Bâtiment des douanes.
The artist, Marion Chombart de Lauwe was invited by the architects of the building to make these engravings during summer 2015 in echo to the collective architecture group Bellastock. Since then, the site started a second life but her artworks remain.
The artist, through her engravings, testifies of the transformation of the building. She managed to understand the atmosphere of this changing place and to accompany it's mutation.
The engravings were made with materials recovered from the demolition of the site of Magasins Généraux Pantin. Find out more about this on the website Marion Chombart de Lauwe.
The site Bâtiment des douanes (Customs building) sheltered the former warehouses of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Paris. Today, the BETC agency and other companies are housed here. The building also hosts different cultural or festive events.
Marion Chombart de Lauwe lives and works in Paris. Her artistic career has developed and blossomed in a multi-disciplinary context with a marriage between visual arts, performing arts and anthropology. This characterises her works and enriches it bringing a fresh perspective.
She willingly positions herself as an in-field artist, feeling the need to temporarily and symbolically live the subjects that occupy her thoughts to produce a painting apt to give, to see and therefore to think.
She develops her projects within the framework of various workshops such as WoMa, Paris-Ateliers or Curry-Vavart. This diversity allows her to have, at her disposal: techniques and contemporary digital tools, but also an older creative savoir-faire like intaglio printing.
Her work strives to take the temperature of the world through space and its representation, managing , where possible, with humour and sincerity, the paradoxes and complexities of a society which constantly questions the places it occupies.
You can also admire her works inside the restaurant Dock B at the Magasins Généraux until October 3rd, 2018.
