For We Are Where We Are Not - a workshop at the Villa Noailles in Hyères / tutored by Margret Wibmer, Jord Den Hollander

Villa Noailles is located at the highest point of Hyères, in the hills above the Mediterranean coast. The villa is designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens as a winter resort. A swimming pool, a gym, a squash hall and a bedroom in the open air form the symbols for fitness mania as well as the modern lifestyle of the 1920ties. The aristocratic couple Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, who commissioned the villa, had also asked the architects Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier to design their country house. In the end they were more attracted by the elegant and sophisticated design of Mallet Stevens, whose experience as a set designer for films is betrayed by the garden wall: openings resembling film stills offer spectacular views of the surrounding landscape and the Mediterranean sea below.

The couple invited countless leading figures of the avant-garde to stay and work in the villa. Amongst them were visual artists, architects, interior designers, writers, musicians and film producers. Man Ray uses the house as a setting for this film Les Mystères du Chateau du Dé and Jean Cocteau uses it in his film Le sang d'un poète. Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel stay in the villa to write the script for l’Age d’Or. Gabriël Guévrékian designs the cubist garden that houses sculptures by Lipchitz, Brancusi and Giacometti. Eileen Grey designs a wall carpet for the villa. The Dutch avant-garde is represented by Theo van Doesburg, Sybold van Ravenstein and Mondrian.

Nowadays the villa houses a cultural institute that brings together architecture, fashion, visual arts and film.

‘For where we are we are not’, workshop at Villa Noailles is a collaborative project of the Dutch Art Institute (DAI) and the Academie van Bouwkunst (AvB).
Workshopleaders: Jord den Hollander (architect, filmer), AvB; Margret Wibmer (visual artist), DAI.
Projectleaders: Kyra Wessels (AvB) and Rik Fernhout (DAI).
Participating students (DAI): Carlijn Mens, Jolanda Jansen, Kevin Drager, Maciej Duchowski, Adamantia Nika and Pavlina Verouki.

Letter from Margret Wibmer

Dear all,

We are about to visit the Villa Noilles, a cultural space with an amazing history. I am curious to see the original building by Robert Mallet-Stevens and what they have added to it. Some great artists have manifested themselves there, got inspired by the place and created remarkable works of art. It would be very difficult to go to such a place and not consider the history of it although the danger is that one might get a little too impressed with it and feels stifled by the creative minds who have occupied this place for so many years.

I have never been to this area and wanted to get into the mood and the atmosphere of the Cote d’Azur before arriving there. I started to read the wonderful novel ‘Tender is the Night’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which describes the social scene at the Cote d’Azur during the 1920’ies in great detail. Check it out!

Obviously the history of the Villa and its surroundings will be a critical part of the creative process. Therefore I do not want you to go there which too much of a preoccupation but I would like you to think about the following:

How do we manifest ourselves in space? How are humans interconnected to other matter in space? What is the function of the reflective eye and the daydream? How closely related are reality and fiction when desire comes into play?

Gaston Bachelard writes in his book ‘The Poetics of Space’: Daydream undoubtedly feeds on all kinds of sights, but through a sort of natural inclination, it contemplates grandeur. And this contemplation produces an attitude that is so special, an inner state that is so unlike any other, that the daydream transports the dreamer outside the immediate world to a world that bears the mark of infinity.

The title of the workshop will be: ‘For we are where we are not’, relating to the above questions.

I understand that all of you work in different media. As far as I am concerned you can use any medium you want but I will encourage you to expand your own roam of experience.
Photography and video, installation, performance and writing seem most apparent to me considering the time span and context. I will encourage collaboration.

Here a couple of more phrases, which might help you to get into the mood:

You know that something has happened here, but you don’t know what. You are by yourself and inside a strangely beautiful space … continue

This is your first wonderful day …. Your legs contain some of the largest muscles in your body. For the purpose of weightlifting, most experts divide the legs into four separate muscle groups: quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and anterior tibialis. The quadriceps and hamstrings act at the knee joint and the calves and anterior tibialis act at the ankle joint … continue

I would like to receive some feedback on this from all of you. This will give me an idea of who you are. If I haven’t seen your work yet during a studio visit, please give me a short description of your work.

Margret Wibmer

Link to website archived.dutchartinstitute.eu/villa_noailles/