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Landskating

The exhibition “Landskating” at Villa Noailles presents the infinite number of spaces – constructed, designed, re-appropriated – resulting from the practice of skateboarding.

The practice of skateboarding could be defined according to a basic apparatus: a wooden plank between 30 and 60 centimetres long with a non-slip surface (the grip) fixed to a twin system of metallic supports (the trucks) which retain four wheels containing ball bearings. Following which a series of accepted figures is practised on different types of surfaces and objects.

The exhibition “Landskating” at Villa Noailles presents the infinite number of spaces, constructed and designed for skateboarding or re-appropriated from their initial intention, that results from this practice. Continuous and smooth concrete becomes a potential surface for a different purpose. Ramps, handrails, benches, pipelines and stairs become promises of sporting performances where adrenalin rules technique.

By observing towns differently, and their spaces as genuine playgrounds, skaters assert a different means of using city centres. From the first embankments of Californian schools, perched amongst the Hollywood hills, or empty swimming pools, to grand-scale projects where the emancipation of a space by a community has made its mark.

An initial section will offer a historical report of the forms practised and the sociologies that they propose. The appropriation of a space and the progressive definitions of a discipline have marked a series of architectures which have since become iconic.

A second section will present 9 skateparks projects: Skatepark rue Léon Cladel, Paris, 2012 (Agence Constructo, France et Raphaël Zarka); Miyashita Park, Tokyo, 2011 (Agence Atelier Bow Wow, Japan); Skatepark Mar Bella, Barcelona, 2014; Skatepark Les Corts, Barcelona, 2014 (Agence SCOB, Espagne); Skatepark les Ursulines, Brussels, 2003-2006 (Agence l’Escaut, Belgium); Skatepark La Roche-sur-Yon, 2013 (Agence Studio 1984, France-US); Olari Skatepark (Agence Janne Saario Landscape Architecture, Finland); …Skateboard That Glides… Land & Drops Into… Sea, Millenium Park, San Juan, 2004 (Vito Acconci, US).

The third section of the exhibition will focus on a photographic commission placed by the arts centre bearing witness to thirty or so skateparks in France. Commission undertaken by Olivier Amsellem, Maxime Delvaux, Stéphane Ruchaud and Cyrille Weiner.

21 February – 20 March 2016
Landskating
Villa Noailles, Hyères

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Landskating

The exhibition “Landskating” at Villa Noailles presents the infinite number of spaces – constructed, designed, re-appropriated – resulting from the practice of skateboarding.

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