Traces de Peter Rice — Centre culturel irlandais — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: May 16 → June 30, 2013

This exhibition presents the work of one of the great engineers of the 20th century whose name is largely unknown to the general public. A specialist in steel structures, Dundalk-born Peter Rice (1935-1992) was a driving force within the design teams for landmark architectural projects including the Sydney Opera House, Centre Pompidou, the Nuage of La Défense and the Pyramide inversée of the Louvre museum.

Architectural models, drawings, large-scale images and personal notebooks are brought together here for the first time; combined with archival films on the construction of key buildings and on Peter Rice himself, they bring the past to life. New work by artist Vivienne Roche, commissioned for the exhibition, reveals the qualities that characterised Rice — lightness, an innovative sense of scale and detail, a love of tactility and surprise, and a distinctive awareness of construction as a profoundly human activity.

Organised in collaboration with Arup Phase 2, London, the Office of Public Works at Farmleigh, Dublin, and with the support of RFR, Paris, this exhibition will be opened by the well-known Italian architect Renzo Piano. Curator: Kevin Barry.