Fondation Cartier presents The Inhabitants

The Inhabitants, an installation created especially for the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain by the Argentinian painter Guillermo Kuitca (b. 1961, Buenos Aires), borrows its title from a film of the same name by Artavazd Pelechian (b. 1938, Gyumri, Armenia). Occupying the entire lower level, it plunges visitors into a pictorial and sound environment, building an intricate network between his own art and that of fellow artists David Lynch (b. 1946, Missoula, USA), Vija Celmins (b. 1938, Riga),Patti Smith (b. 1946, Chicago) and Artavazd Pelechian. Guillermo Kuitca‘s work mirrors the history of the Fondation Cartier and its unique way of establishing relationships between artists and artworks, inciting encounters of many kinds, and making connections from one project to the next over the years. The idea for The Inhabitants came from David Lynch‘s life‑sized recreation of a living room, inspired by one of his own small drawings.

Guillermo Kuitca‘s installation constantly plays on viewers’ sensations and creates optical illusions. It also invites visitors to reflect upon his oeuvre as a whole, characterized by references to maps and the intersection between places and things, as well as allusions to physical, mental and emotional territories in which the human figure is conspicuously absent.

The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain continues to commemorate its 30th anniversary with Musings on a Glass Box, a new installation created especially for the occasion by the internationally acclaimed interdisciplinary design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The Foundation building designed by Jean Nouvel will be used as raw material for their work, a first in the history of the institution. Musings on a Glass Box is a complex work occupying the entire ground floor of the Fondation Cartier, where a disturbance in the ceiling will trigger a surprising reaction. The result is an immersive environment, including an integral acoustic component by American composer David Lang and sound designer Jody Elff, that works with the building’s architecture to raise questions about transparency, perception, and one’s relation to space.

Based in New York, Diller Scofidio + Renfro is an interdisciplinary studio that integrates architecture, the visual arts and the performing arts. It was co-founded in 1979 by Elizabeth Diller, Professor at Princeton University School of Architecture, and by Ricardo Scofidio, Professor Emeritus of Architecture at Cooper Union. Charles Renfro, currently a Visiting Professor at Parsons New School for Design, became Partner in 2004.

David Lang is an American composer based in New York, founder of the music collective Bang on a Can, and member of the Yale School of Music Composition faculty. Jody Elff is a sound artist living and working in New York City.