Luminodynamism

In his work, Nicolas Schöffer challenges the emblematic function works of art. His Lumino (1968) was the first work of art that was conceived for industrial serial production. In France Philips produced 1500 pieces of the Lumino and in the United States Clairol produced 2500 pieces thereby giving it the evocative name Dream Box. For Schöffer the optical effect is the most important component of a work of art. His Prism (1965) illustrates how the artistic object is no longer a finality in its own right, but a means to experiment with the infinite, the virtual. In his text The future of art, the art of the future (in: La Ville cybernétique, 1969), Nicolas Schöffer poses a question about an artistic output, generated by genetic physiological, physical, chemical, olfactory, visual and audiovisual processes. According to Schöffer, an artist has to aim not for the image, but for an impact. With his series Microtemps (1961-1968), exhibited in 1966 in the Paris Gallery Denise René, Schöffer aims to stimulate the neurons of the viewer in a straightforward way; the pieces of polished metal and plexiglas are animated, some noisy and frantic, and they produce colourful beams of light. In this programmed series of light play, movement, colours, shapes and rhythms are in vivid contrast. The acceleration of plastic events in a time lapse of 24 images per second is meant to enrich not only the retinal perception, but also the mental perception. So his creations are not merely objects of design, but rather utopian instruments (some interactive) to stimulate the human body. (www.olats.org/schoffer)

Works included in the Villa Photon exhibition: Minieffet (1969), Varetra (1975), Mini Prisme (1975), Lumino (1968), Microtemps (1967), Cabine téléphonique prismatique (1967), Panetra Lumineux (1975). Collection: Eléonore de Lavandeyra Schöffer