Artist: Julio Le Parc

"Generally speaking, I have tried, through my experiments, to elicit a different type of behavior from the viewer […] to seek, together with the public, various means of fighting off passivity, dependency or ideological conditioning, by developing reflective, comparative, analytical, creative or active capacities."

                                                                                                                 JULIO LE PARC

Continuel-lumière avec 49 cylindres-vitesse rapide, 1967

Julio Le Parc has worked for more than 50 years. Experimenting with light and movement, encouraging public participation and interaction within contemporary art. A recent retrospective of his monumental sculptures and installations was held at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris spanning all aspects of his commitment to the constant reconstruction of our environments.

Using light as a medium means a separation from static, motionless work. It is not forever. Through a series of interventions and experimentation Le Parc manipulates this quality, combining it with various reflective materials (Plexiglas, prisms of various shapes, magnifying glass, projections etc) to surrounded the viewer by moments of change and transience, also allowing for their presence to impact upon the work, displacing the usual conventions of the public - art relationship.

Continuel-lumière avec formes en contorsion, 1966

I involuntarily relate light with the process of sight, memory and psychology and it is inextricably linked with time, reflections and fragmentation emulate the recovery and loss found in memory. But Le Parc separates his work from this psychologism, in order to confront his political and social ideas. He is a campaigner for human rights and therefore public disturbance and intervention is an important role in constructing new and utopic environments that inspire a haptic and sensory experience.   
  

Cloison à lames réfléchissantes, 1966