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Copyright

Guy Pimienta

Published On

2024-10-09

Page Range

pp. 361–374

Language

  • English

Print Length

14 pages

22. Iannis Xenakis/Le Corbusier

A Confrontation en sol dur

  • Guy Pimienta (author)
  • Sharon Kanach (translator)
Chapter of: Meta-Xenakis: New Perspectives on Iannis Xenakis’s Life, Work, and Legacies(pp. 361–374)
Le Corbusier was always able to surround himself with extremely competent people, which was one of his trademarks. As such, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Faucheux, and Iannis Xenakis were exemplary spearheads. Iannis Xenakis introduced himself to Le Corbusier in 1947 to work as an engineer in his Atelier, and the latter immediately integrated him into his AtBat, the agency he had created for the construction of the Housing Unit in Marseille. When Le Corbusier accepted the commission for La Tourette in 1953, he was deeply engaged in his Chandigarh project, so he entrusted the convent project to Xenakis, to whom he said: ‘I have a project which absolutely suits you, a very geometric project’. Xenakis simultaneously worked on the design of the convent and the composition of his first major musical work: Metastasis, contemporary with that of the undulating glass panes of La Tourette. In 1956, Le Corbusier asked Xenakis to design a Pavilion for the Brussels International Exhibition of 1958, a true contemporary form of synthesis of the arts, mathematics, and techniques which, with the passage of time, would appear as a manifesto of experimental architecture. When Xenakis claimed that his name be associated with that of Le Corbusier for the Philips Pavilion, their relationship deteriorated. The master found it fit to specify: ‘it is a common experience that the horse is convinced that it is driving the cart’. Iannis Xenakis demonstrates with this project that he is much more than a junior draftsman-engineer for a demanding architect. Notes in Le Corbusier's sketchbooks prove the importance he attached to the musician-architect. By firing him, Le Corbusier allowed the musical destiny of Iannis Xenakis to fully unfold.

Contributors

Guy Pimienta

(author)

Guy Pimienta, architect (DPLG in 1983 from the Beaux-Arts, Paris), whose final thesis focused on the links between art and architecture. Aesthetics represents the center of his interests, as does literature. Close links have formed between his practice as an architect and his interest in art. This persistent link that unites art and architecture is based on drawing as a tool of thought. His first articles were devoted to artists and architects: Johan Otto Spreckelsen, Georges Rousse, Santiago Calatrava, Enric Mirallès, Christian de Portzamparc. Authors like Walter Benjamin, Edmond Jabès, Georges Perec, Meyer Shapiro have been decisive in his approach to what space can be. He co-founded the Dédale architecture studio in 1990 with Roland Baroin, where they develop public facilities and also scenographies. On the sidelines of their activity as architects, they founded, in 2009, Peuplier Éditions, with the intention of maintaining close links with and between artists and writers. Their “L’œuvre en main” collection of published boxes currently includes twelve titles.

Sharon Kanach

(translator)
Co-president of the Centre Iannis Xenakis at University of Rouen

The American musician Sharon Kanach first went to France to study with Nadia Boulanger. Very quickly however, in 1978, her path crossed that of Iannis Xenakis, with whom she studied and collaborated closely, especially on his writings (Arts/Sciences: Alloys; Formalized Music; Music and Architecture…). With the publisher Pendragon Press (recently closed) she was the editor of the Xenakis Series where a total of six books were produced. In 2009, she founded the Xenakis Project of the Americas under the auspices of the Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation at the Graduate Center of City University of New York and is currently Co-president of the Centre Iannis Xenakis (CIX) based at the Université de Rouen Normandie (France), under the auspices of the research lab Groupe de Recherche d’Histoire (GRHis). Between 2013–23, she was on the Editorial Committee of Circuit, musiques contemporaines. In 2022, under her directorship, the CIX initiated the Meta-Xenakis Consortium to celebrate the centenary of Xenakis’s birth. Kanach has been promoted to “Chevalière de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Ministry of Culture.