Skateable sculpture at the Pompidou Centre in Paris
Skate-able multi-coloured sculpture appears in the square Centre Pompidou In Paris 2024 OlympicsIt is the brainchild of French artist Raphael Zarka and created in collaboration with architect Jean-Benoît Vétillard. I can skate Sculpture Especially in the square of the Pompidou Center, public You can look out into the ochre-hued space and watch amateur and professional skaters gliding down the ramps. 2030 renovation by Moreau Camphor Cooperation Frida Escobedo Studiowill host Rafael Zarqa's Cycloïd Piazza from 22 June to 15 September 2024.
All photos by Fred Mortagne, courtesy of Centre Pompidou
Applying Galileo's Cycloid to Skatable Sculptures
Rafael Zarka's inspiration for the design of his skateable sculpture was the experimental physics laboratory of classical times. French artist He revisited the cycloid of Galileo, the astronomer who in 1599 coined the name cycloid for the brachystochrone curve, and applied it to the skateboarding environment for the first time, exhibiting it at the Centre Pompidou. Square Designed for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the piece combines art and physics, incorporating elements of the early 20th century, Constructivism and Geometric Abstraction movements, and drawing on the work of pioneering women such as Katarzyna Kobro, Lyubov Popova, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Sonia Delaunay.
Just in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Centre Pompidou will welcome Rafael Zarka's Cycloid Square
Cycloid Square during the Paris 2024 Olympics
The skateable sculpture's polychromatic palette includes reds, greens and yellows, as well as ochre hues that recall the hues of Renaissance paintings and the palette established by modern architect Le Corbusier in 1931. Rafael Zarka is himself a skater and has written several books on the subject, including “La Conjonction interdite”, “A Chronicle of Skateboarding 1777-2009” and “Free Ride and Riding Modern Art”. For him, working on the Centre Pompidou's Cycloïd Piazza, and releasing it in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics, was a full-circle moment, offering a platform for him to understand how to approach form and space.
The skateable sculpture comes in red, green and yellow ochre.
Rafael Zarka's Square Cycloid is the fourth in a series of skateable sculptures that he began in New York in 2011. His latest work, a skate ramp at the Centre Pompidou, features a multitude of shelves, steps, walkways and podiums, where visitors and skaters can walk, rest, gather and roll, even after watching the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. It brings everyone together in one space and encourages them to use it in creative ways. “The word square suggests a change in scale. My sculpture was designed as a space, an area within an area, a square on a square.” The French artist says:
A view from the top of the skating sculpture at the Pompidou Centre
A preliminary model or mock-up of a skating sculpture in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics
Portrait of Rafael Zarqa
Project Information:
name: Cycloid Square
Artist: Rafael Zarqa | Rafael Zarqa
Contributors: Jean-Benoît Vetillard | Jean-Benoît Vetilard
Complex: Centre Pompidou | @Pompidou Centre
position: Georges Pompidou Square 75004 Paris
date: June 22nd to September 15th, 2024
event: Paris 2024 Olympics
photograph: Fred Mortagne | France Fred
Matthew Burgos | designboom
July 3, 2024
