Christine Corday: Sans Titre / Material Phases of Suns,
Venice exhibition

May 21, 2021

Congratulations to Christine Corday for her participation in “Time Space Existence”, the European Cultural Centre’s fifth edition of the extensive biennial architecture exhibition. Coinciding with the 17th Venice International Architectural Exhibition, Corday presents Sans Titre / Material Phases of Suns. This continuation of Corday’s recent collaboration with ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), features a monumental minimalist simulation of Sans Titre–the art object embedded within the assembly hall of ITER–rotating in real-time at the same speed as our Sun. Over the course of the six-month Biennale, this duet of movement in which the digital form of Sans Titre along with its orbiting field of meandering particles will complete one rotation every 26.24 earth days as our Sun does. This experience of the two-octillion-ton Sun witnessed through Corday’s two-pound object, which is only possible through the extremely slow, barely perceptible rotation of the object, is a sensory encounter of sculptural mass, limited to the sensation derived from time and duration.

A sonic element that spans the length of the simulation also accompanies the visual experience. The sound is a cross-fade between two frequencies over a period of approximately six months or six rotations with the Sun. It begins with the frequency of the material of the Sans Titre—the element of iron from which the bolt is forged—becoming the recorded resonating frequency or ringing sound of the object when struck like a bell. This sound functions to create a meditative experience, complementing the developing form, while metamorphosing over the duration of the piece. The two intersecting sonic waveforms stretched across the durational span of the work reveals to visitors the blending of frequencies unique to a specific moment in time, dilating into a scale that renders the context indiscernible.

Sans Titre / Material Phases of Suns is supported by an experiential website untitledartobject.com. The site presents several encounters of the real-time artwork, that will be updated throughout the duration of the Biennale, evolving in tandem with the simulation in Venice, and functions to expand on the supporting ideas of the project, diving further into the genesis of the work. The site will also feature panel talks throughout the Biennale covering topics of the unique production of this artwork with its Los Angeles collaborators; “The Architecture of a Star” featuring speakers from ITER and Lockheed Martin Solar & Astrophysics Lab; as well as Artist talk with leaders and physicists from ITER.

The exhibition will also include Elemental Architecture / Sans Titre Variations, a series of sculptural variations of Sans Titre. While each object takes a distinct form founded by the hexagon, cylinder, and helix, each addresses Corday’s deeper material language of utility and form. This series joins the materially inseparable and distinct works in its system of interlocking and interchanging geometries echoing the helical structure of Sans Titre, the helical twist of magnetic fields in distant suns, and the toroidal helical pulse of the tokamak—the cradle of fusion reaction within ITER.

H11 is a special edition Corday created in support of her upcoming Radius Book publication, to be released in October 2021.

You may find more information on Corday’s project Sans Titre here.

For more information on ITER please click here.

To visit the Sans Titre / Material Phases of Suns experiential website, please follow this link untitledartobject.com.

Sans Titre / Material Phases of Suns project’s primary collaborators include Stephen Mangiat (Design, Implementation, Sound); GMUNK, Aaron Koblin (Project advisors); Chris Jones (Production Design); Website: Jarred Grimes. Additional support provided by ITER, NASA/Solar Dynamic Observatory, Lockheed Martin Solar & Astrophysics Lab, National Solar Observatory, NJ Precision Technologies, and Christopher Powers of KC Fabrications.