Tours Des Revolutions (project)

Last year I built a virtual prototype and did some 3D renderings for artist Peter Eudenbach for a proposal he was making to Exit Art in New York. Peter just sent me a shot of the almost finished piece in his studio. I think it is stunning. Here is the blurb on the show:

The Building Show - Exit Art NYC
Buildings have become iconic figures of cities and countries, as homage to the vertical icons that surround us; we are asking artists to choose any building in the world and to respond to it by making a conceptual, realistic, personal, intimate or analytical portrait of that structure. Our personal relationship to buildings is at the crux of this exhibition. These architectural wonders are loved or despised by their neighbours. Oftentimes buildings serve as a symbol of a city or have deeply rooted historical significance; they form skylines that are embedded into our vertical memory. Other times buildings are surrounded by controversy, neighbourhoods are rezoned, gentrification causes displacement, and old buildings are torn down and quickly rebuilt for new uses. For The Building Show, we want artists to respond to the love / hate relationship they have to these important structures. Artists can choose any building in the world, but the building needs to physically exist today.

Here is what Peter said in his proposal:

1889 - Gustave Eiffel’s Tower is built as a focal point of the World’s Fair held in Paris to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Initially reviled by Parisians, the tower has since become the emblem of Paris.

1893 - George Ferris, a bridge builder like Eiffel, creates the Ferris Wheel for the Chicago World’s Fair. The 250-foot steel-structured rotating wheel is intended to be a spectacle surpassing the Eiffel Tower.

1913 - Marcel Duchamp creates Bicycle Wheel, the first and perhaps most famous of his “readymades”. The Frenchman later cites his fascination with Ferris Wheels as an inspiration for the piece. For Duchamp, technology was not to be taken seriously; the wheel, perhaps the ultimate milestone in the history of invention, was for play instead of work.
Built to commemorate the French Revolution, the Eiffel Tower inspired Ferris to create a revolving wrought iron engineering marvel to surpass it. Twenty years later Duchamp’s love of Ferris Wheels led to the first readymade and caused a revolution in art. My proposal is a Ferris Wheel composed of Eiffel towers, which would bring this famous landmark full circle.

A Ferris Wheel made of full-scale Eiffel Towers would be a monumental folly three times the size of the recently completed Shanghai Ferris Wheel, which is the largest in the world.

A detailed model or rendering would be created for the Building Show, along with an edition of multiples resembling a memento or souvenir. Peter Eudenbach. May 2006.