House to Watch the Sunset, Flores

source: socks-studio
Not Vital (1948 -) is a contemporary Swiss artist who works since the Seventies with several media. From paintings to sculpture, he currently explores an environment which is on the brink between site-specific sculptures and architecture in the form of iconic houses and other small buildings. The “House to watch the Sunset” (2005), was built in Ladab, Niger with local materials allowing visitors to move from one level to another following the height of the sunset. The Makaranta, also in Niger, is a stepped pyramid which should work as a school hosting the students on its steps. The “House Against Heat and Sandstorms” plays with the vernacular language and explores the absolute meaning of sheltering. The subject of the house is investigated underlining each time a possible action which can be performed through the building and playing on the dialectics between abstract form and vernacular materialization.