Report: Centre for Contemporary Art (CCC) in Tours
After leading an unassuming life in a former car repair workshop, this art centre in Tours now takes its place confidently in the urban environment. As part of a programme of refurbishment, an interactive illuminated screen with 150 vertical perspex louvres was fixed to the existing facade. Silicone strips with light-emitting diodes, housed in the rear faces of the louvres, radiate light from the edges, which curve in and out in a wavy line. In this way, a second layer of dynamic luminous contours is created, generating what seems like a series of floating forms that lend the facade a spatial quality. The visual effect changes, depending on the angle of view. Philippe Chiambaretta has created a kind of flowing threshold space that consists of light and void at the interface between inside and outside. Fixed over the internal faces of the glazing is a dark but transparent foil layer, the light transmittance of which increases towards the centre of the pane. At night, the glazed areas form bright patches in the facade, their vague outlines merging with the other illuminations.
