This masterclass is the 6th session of the Sensitive Observations Seminar Series hosted by AA Diploma Unit 16: Homo Urbanus taught by Ila Beka, Louise Lemoine & Gili Merin
For those who want to look, everything is art. Nature, the city, man, the landscape, the air of the time, what we call mood and, finally, light. And everyone knows the art of artists, the art that bears their signature. However, there is an undefined range where the raw field of nature – the circumstances – and the authenticated territory of man meet. This meeting ground produces figures that are both distant from and close to art, depending on the definition one gives. For my part, I consider involuntary art to be the happy result of an unforeseen combination of situations or objects organised together according to rules of harmony dictated by chance. » Gilles Clément, Traité succinct de l’art involontaire.
In search of wonder and visual surprises along his numerous travels around the world, Gilles Clément published in Traité succinct de l’art involontaire (Sens et Tonka, France, 2014) his collection of photographs and drawings depicting fragile situations, subtle circumstances, and ephemeral traces of interactions between man and nature. These unintentional and anonymous poetical moments is what he calls « involuntary art ».
Landscape designer, writer and educator, Gilles Clément’s work has reached international recognition for a great number of gardens among which: Parc André Citroën in Paris (1992), Parc Henri Matisse in Lille (2003), the Gardens of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris (2003), the Gardens of the Domaine du Rayol in the Var region in France. He has also developed important theoretical research. His main publications include: « The Garden in Movement » (1991), « The Planetary Garden » (1999) and « The Third Landscape » (2004).
