éco (…..) éco (…..) éco (…….) — volet I — Dohyang Lee Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: October 15 → November 19, 2022

« Our home is burning and we are still looking somewhere else »¹

The Dohyang Lee Gallery invites you to the first part of the collective exhibition éco (…..) éco (…..) éco (…….). For this title that approaches a trinity of notions, deliberately hidden to leave one’s imagination free, we propose an interpretation knowing that eco² is a prefix which comes from the ancient Greek word oîkos³ (house).

We thus suggest an analogy with the house (in the meaning of architectural building), which is composed of three major elements, the structure, the skin and its environment.

éco (…..) or économie⁴ (economy). The economy frames and structures societies. In this sense, it allows their physical existence. Like architectural structures, they can be solidary with each other (community systems or communism), or on the contrary assert an ostentatious audacity of power (capitalism). Auguste Choisy (1841 — 1909) stresses the primordial importance of the structure in terms of architecture. The architectural form is conditioned, according him, by societal developments and not by a purely individual and arbitrary gesture.

éco (…..) or é_cologie_⁵ (ecology). Ecology is assimilated to the skin of a house, and becomes the interface between interior and exterior. It organizes their respective relationships, and contributes to the well-being, psychological and physiological balance of each inhabitant through the created atmosphere. The German architect Gottfried Semper (1803 — 1879) emphasized the importance of enveloping materials, through his studies on polychromy, ornamentation, as a testimony of the arts and means of expression at a given time. As our present time at the beginning of the 21st century is concerned with ecological issues, the materiality of our coatings used would be a subject of study for later generations, as an attempt to safeguard natural resources.

éco (…….) or écosystème⁶ (ecosystem). We can see the ecosystem as a synthesis where the structure creates a skeleton, the skin wrapping around this skeleton. From this union is formed an interior environment, influenced by the flexibility or rigidity of the structure and the quality of the materials of this skin (visual, plastics…). This same skin is in contact with the outside, which influences the feeling of security or insecurity. We can quote the concepts and achievements of many pioneering architects like Richard Rogers (1933 — 2021) and his sustainable cities, as an attempt to achieve an urban ecosystem for the present and the future.

The works of the main hall make us think of an inner courtyard, like a Roman atrium, with the presence of works allusive to light, water, plant, while those of the lower level, try to integrate nature but with a more mineral aspect and focused on History and the relationships between human being and nature.

¹ Jacques Chirac (1932 — 2019), Fourth Earth Summit, September 2th 2002, Johannesburg, South Africa
fn2. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/eco?q=eco
fn3. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eco
fn4. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/economy?q=economy
fn5. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/ecology?q=ecology
fn6. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/ecosystem?q=ecosystem