The practice of skateboarding could be defined according to a basic apparatus: a wooden plank between 30 and 60 centimetres long with a non-slip surface (the grip) fixed to a twin system of metallic supports (the trucks) which retain four wheels containing ball bearings. Following which a series of accepted figures is practised on different types of surfaces and objects.
Landskating
The exhibition “Landskating” at Villa Noailles presents the infinite number of spaces – constructed, designed, re-appropriated – resulting from the practice of skateboarding.
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- 20 February 2016
- Hyères
The exhibition “Landskating” at Villa Noailles presents the infinite number of spaces, constructed and designed for skateboarding or re-appropriated from their initial intention, that results from this practice. Continuous and smooth concrete becomes a potential surface for a different purpose. Ramps, handrails, benches, pipelines and stairs become promises of sporting performances where adrenalin rules technique.
By observing towns differently, and their spaces as genuine playgrounds, skaters assert a different means of using city centres. From the first embankments of Californian schools, perched amongst the Hollywood hills, or empty swimming pools, to grand-scale projects where the emancipation of a space by a community has made its mark.
An initial section will offer a historical report of the forms practised and the sociologies that they propose. The appropriation of a space and the progressive definitions of a discipline have marked a series of architectures which have since become iconic.
A second section will present 9 skateparks projects: Skatepark rue Léon Cladel, Paris, 2012 (Agence Constructo, France et Raphaël Zarka); Miyashita Park, Tokyo, 2011 (Agence Atelier Bow Wow, Japan); Skatepark Mar Bella, Barcelona, 2014; Skatepark Les Corts, Barcelona, 2014 (Agence SCOB, Espagne); Skatepark les Ursulines, Brussels, 2003-2006 (Agence l’Escaut, Belgium); Skatepark La Roche-sur-Yon, 2013 (Agence Studio 1984, France-US); Olari Skatepark (Agence Janne Saario Landscape Architecture, Finland); …Skateboard That Glides… Land & Drops Into… Sea, Millenium Park, San Juan, 2004 (Vito Acconci, US).
The third section of the exhibition will focus on a photographic commission placed by the arts centre bearing witness to thirty or so skateparks in France. Commission undertaken by Olivier Amsellem, Maxime Delvaux, Stéphane Ruchaud and Cyrille Weiner.
21 February – 20 March 2016
Landskating
Villa Noailles, Hyères