As Libra, symbol of the scales, Le Corbusier's love of balance can be seen in two of his seminal drawings. One is the figure eight diagram that he drew repeatedly throughout his career, showing the perpetual movement of day into night. The second is his drawing of the half sun half Medusa face. The Libra is known to be attracted to beautiful things, beneath which are housed more violent and monstrous undertones. Libras are also governed by logic, stemming from the Greek concept of Logos. Le Corbusier manifested his desire for Logos with his use of the golden ratio. With a balanced sense of self, Libra men are often in touch with their feminine side. Le Corbusier's Modular Man was tall and thin, like Corbusier himself, with angular shoulders countered by large feminine hips, reminiscent of pre-historic, Mediterranean, female fertility Venus statues. The desire for proportion, rhythm and order is also played out in the influence of music on Le Corbusier's work, particularly that of the composer Iannis Xenakis who worked in his office. Le Corbusier often borrowed from his "friends" and "colleagues". The glass surfaces of La Tourette were derived directly from a Xenakis score. With the romantic and meandering desires of the Libra, Le Corbusier explored the most vivid imaginings of the free plan, which began with the Domino House and culminated in his Maison series. Le Corbusier's more composed rectilinear exteriors are contrasted by an internal explosion of free form on the inside, which relates to the body of the inhabitant as one moves throughout the space. The acoustic effects as people move through the interiors of Le Corbusier's spaces relate his architecture to music. Le Corbusier dabbled in Eastern mysticism but it was with his trip to India that his work changed dramatically in this regard. Moving away from the rigidity of Greek, Doric structure he encountered the more ancient female fertility divinities of Mother India. He became interested in Jantar Mantar as a scientific observatory and celestial sanctuary, as it combined the Libra's need for rational order and cosmic romance. Ronchamp is not unlike an observatory with its small windows that function like apertures, funnelling light through thick walls and flooding the interior with light from the heavens. The grounds of Ronchamp are landscaped with grassy earth mounds linking the chapel to the cult of the prehistoric Mediterranean matriarchal goddess. The bell tower of Ronchamp is phallic in form, possibly referring to the Indian Lingam, used in Hindu ceremony to represent the deity Shiva. The Lingam is a symbol of the phallus and represents male creative energy while the chapel, with its womb-like interior, perhaps refers to the Yoni— the vessel that holds the Lingam and represents female creative energy. Ronchamp seeks the Libra's need for balance between the male and female body. The interior of Ronchamp holds three shrines, each dedicated to an important female image. One shrine is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, another to Le Corbusier's mother, and the third to his wife. Le Corbusier's fascination with the bull, which took form in the Chandigarh Secretariat Building represents an interest in the return to the matriarchal pre-Greek, Cretan and Minoan culture, where the bull was worshiped as a fertility symbol.
Dan Graham, Jessica Russell
As one of the most influential conceptual artists of his time, Dan Graham first emerged in the 1960s alongside the Minimalists. His work crosses multiple mediums including performance, film and video, exploring shifts in individual and group consciousness and the limits of public and private space. This has evolved into the installations and pavilions for which Graham is most internationally famous. All his projects are democratically rooted in everyday urban life.
Jessica Russell studied and practiced art in Melbourne, Australia, where she also worked in film and television before relocating to New York where she currently studies architecture at The Cooper Union.