Housing unit, Neal Beggs, 2012

Work produced by the Domaine de Chamarande
*Private space Moulin de Blaireau. Visible only during temporary exhibitions, guided tours or by appointment.

With Unité d'habitation, Neal Beggs (an Irish artist living and working in France) pays tribute to Le Corbusier's building of the same name, erected in Marseille between 1947 and 1952 during the post-war reconstruction period. His work takes the form of a reinforced concrete table whose rough-cut legs echo the shape and proportions of the gigantic pilings on which the body of Le Corbusier's building rests.

Neal Beggs also uses the formwork system employed by the Swiss architect, which allows him to create graphic effects on the edge of the board, linked to the arrangement of the wooden planks in the formwork. The artist sees his piece as a 'slice' or reduced-scale fragment of the Cité Radieuse. In this way, Neal Beggs transposes Le Corbusier's desire to bring people together in communal housing to that of bringing them together around the most convivial piece of furniture: the table.

There is also a formal relationship between the concrete table and the cemented stained-glass windows of the church in Piacé, another gathering place. Another work, 'All the young dudes' by Neal Beggs, also produced for the Chamarande estate in 2012, exists on the route and resonates with this table. With these two pieces, Neal Beggs reinforces his desire to bring people together and unite them, whether through action (the table that brings people together, the rallying point for councils, meetings or family reunions) or through memory (the memory preserved in cemeteries or in front of memorials). Its message is clear: we must work together to build a better future that spares us the horrors of new wars. As in David Bowie's song, the atmosphere may be pessimistic, but the message is hopeful and unifying.

Text by Roma Lambert