French artist François Delarozière together with his La Machine Company was invited to design and produce the large-scale mechanical installation work of the horse with a dragon head entitled “Dragon Horse” by France, in order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, and the name is an implication of “the vigour of a dragon or horse”. The creative team artificially concreted the concept of the life of the sacred animal, and showed as an experience-based drama mode through advanced scientific and technological means. From October 17 to October 19, 2014, it presented a touring show of the installation work entitled the “Giant Spider” at the Olympic Plaza in Beijing, which made a deep impression on the audience, offering a wide artistic influence.

On the evening of December 5, 2016, the School of Design of the Central Academy of Fine Arts together with the Alliance Francaise in Beijing invited François Delarozière, the founder and artistic director of La Machine to present a lecture on the decryption of the work “Dragon Horse” and the design process, performance methods and working methods of other representatives by La Machine.

Prof. Song Xiewei, Dean of the School of Design said that, “François is a person with multiple identities as a sculptor, performance artist and design creator and he is committed to creating an expression of rich artistic effect, mechanical aesthetics and relational aesthetics, clearly subverting the usual rules and conventional narrative logic, the performance has a social aspect that makes the space change, showcasing a very shocking work.” At the same time, he said the works would be led into the campus of CAFA via a planned route with the follow-up cooperation. Subsequently, the general representative of Alliance Francaise in China Jean-Luc Tissier gave a brief introduction to the Alliance Francaise and hoped that the two countries would have a closer cooperation in cultural and artistic exchanges in the future.

La Machine is a French company specializing in the art of mechanical installation, and its team members include artists, technicians, decorators, etc. At the beginning of 1999, La Machine mainly used a pattern of street performance and it has gradually developed to a creation around irregular performing projects, such as the designs of the scenery of public places, cities and architectural planning. At present, its work focuses on the movement of large machinery and a narrative performance in public places, emphasizing the urban elements of the work of art, as well as devoting themselves to the design and research of the creation of future cities. François further explained that, “It is a simple reason to focus on the mechanical action, and movement that is used to express emotions, like the use of body language to generate dance, which is a way to express emotions.”

“Man has created something that is not as fine as the natural creation”, François said that the inspiration of the works were almost entirely condensed in nature, hardly imitating or plagiarizing other things. Among the processes of drawing, making and finalizing, the process of construction is the most interesting – the architects put their own experience and inspiration into the work based on the original axes of the manuscripts, which aims at presenting a new and lively mechanical species.

Subsequently, François elaborated the audience on “what is the machine as performing” with the use of short film. La Machine has a “giant catalog” – that contains more than 100 various mechanical installations, it once held a large-scale exhibition of the catalog, and a large number of people tried to operate these installations, the open and easy method made art closer to life.

The machine as a performance can lead to a strong resonance of feelings in a very short period of time, and the city has become a theater participated in by all people at this time, the conventional logic is broken, art activates the city. François shared the show of the “Giant Spider” in Liverpool – 13 meters tall, 20 meters long and 38 tons weight, demanding 15 mechanics to perform the installation. Liverpool residents did not know about it in advance, so they were shocked by a mechanical monster climbing the façade of a European-style building when they awoke the next morning. During the evening show, art covered the street with a layer of dream-like dramatic effect.

Another pursuit of La Machine team’s is to transform the city. François demonstrated what the projects group had created in the southern city of Nantes in France, including the installations “Mechanical Elephant”, “Mechanical Promenade” and the “Carousel of the Marine World” which were integrated into the city and made the city that originally had an industrial atmosphere gradually change to an attractive cultural city, the artistic installation changed the original monotonous life style of the inhabitants, and artistic value was highlighted in the reconstruction of an urban cultural context.

The “Carousel” is constituted by a variety of marine biological forms, and people can operate some simple instruments when they ride it, the interesting and interactivity become flash points of the work. The diameter of “Heron Tree” is more than 50 meters wide and it is more than 30 meters high, the project is expected to be completed in 2020, and the masses can climb “on the tree” to visit it, hide in a hung garden and a café with a terrace, people can take the elevator where they can move without restrictions , inside the trunk, the installation plays a role of a special building. It is worth mentioning that they had opened an “adventure journey” entitled “Revival of Animal” at the La Roche-sur-Yon Napoleon Square – the background of the story was set to the archaeological excavation site, the use of an ancient method to explore large-scale machines in the most modern sense, and this structural clue of interpretation itself is intriguing, and people had to say it was wonderful!

In the final part of the lecture, François gave a detailed introduction of the stories of “Dragon Horse”: In order to complete the show in China to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, the team had organized 80 people to work intensely for 8 months; in order to carry it to China as soon as possible, they first tried to use the world’s largest aircraft to carry it (various parts of the work can be dismantled); when it was on show in the National Stadium in Beijing, the huge installation required 17 staff to operate it at the same time. François said that “the performance was successful, and the Dragon Horse has now become a Chinese citizen”, the sacred animal shape of classical mythology is made concrete, the modern science and technology integrated with the wooden and leathery materials of rich textural quality, and the texture of steel machinery is enhanced, the interesting performance ignited the enthusiasm of the audience, while the interactivity and story continued to heat up in the dramatic narrative.

Finally, he shared a wonderful description of the artist himself: “Art decoration is a “narrator”, so I am very fascinated with it. Art decoration can by means of nature, geometry or architecture tell the history and interesting anecdotes, and it can bring together thousands of assembled people, vividly displaying the content, and even fully using part of the value of buildings. Plants also provide us with a variety of endless models, when plants, animals and decorative machinery interweave together, it will create a fantastic world, and we will find that life is so colorful, when this dream world is truthfully presented in front of us!”

Text by Zhang Yizhi, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo by Hu Sichen/CAFA ART INFO

(Part of the images is from the network)