The house of memory

The house of memory

Cannes, France
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The story begins in the city of cinema, more precisely on the site of the former Cannes Observatory, which ceased operations in 1986. We visited the site regularly to document the evolution of this building overlooking the bay of Cannes. Once connected to the city center by a funicular, one must now cross through “Super Cannes” and its luxurious villas to reach this abandoned place. Nature has gradually reclaimed its rights, covering the traces of this past world. A strange sensation arises from these landmarks, remnants, and ruins of a bygone era, acting like a Memento Mori. Models, drawings, photographs, and various montages attempt to capture the underlying phenomena of entropy on the site, until the moment it starts ‘’rolling ‘’: the House of Memory will develop as a long promenade through both the site and time. Seized by the passage of time and the things left behind, the few surviving stones are the last witnesses to a fight already lost against the inexorable phenomenon of entropy. The “House of Cinema Memories” thus presents itself as a perhaps naïve response to the inevitable destruction of all things - a reasoned struggle against entropy. In Cannes, the city of moving images, the “House of Cinema Memories” will play in its second role: that of a media library. A loop creates a continuous journey from the outside to the inside, revealing a series of “projection rooms.” Visitors wander between shear veils, take a seat, and immerse themselves in film memories. Partially buried, the long body of the media library dips and rises above the ground in an apparently endless motion. Yet it, too, will face the passage of time. Its moving surface, made of clay and sand, will endure the changing seasons and will not fail to show it. Water running along the corten railings will oxidize its scaly skin. Only the treasures it holds seem to be spared. Perhaps for the duration of a projection?

Date:

2024

Client:

City of Cannes

Role:

Graduation project

Imagery

Photography

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