exhibition series. The house was opened to the public
for ive weeks before Pardo moved in.
The Arles project takes that idea of art as domestic/
public space to a new level. Pardo produced more than
1,300 pieces of furniture, ranging from rocking chairs,
wooden tables and woven-cane wardrobes to some
400 laser-cut lamps and chandeliers. They were
handmade and painted by a 24-strong team at his
studio in Mérida, Mexico (which grew to accommodate
the ambition of the project), and now populate
30 rooms and 11 residences as well as communal spaces.
‘The aesthetic is not necessarily responding to
the antiquity,’ explains Pardo, whose concept is more
concerned with light and colours, while introducing
a dialogue between the Camargue region and his
adopted home of Yucatán. ‘They’re both places where
you look at the sky all the time,’ he continues dreamily.
But it’s the kaleidoscopic surfaces that really
set l’Arlatan apart. More than a million handmade,
glazed ceramic tiles, in 11 diferent shapes and 18 colours
(ranging from light yellows and tangerine to lavender
and sky blue), are assembled into geometrical mosaics
(evoking the Moorish art of zellige tiles), covering
entire loors and parts of the walls. ‘Every tile that
you see has a place,’ airms Pardo. ‘It’s like a painting.’A 5,200 sq m, luminous, oddly fragmented painting
which hints at the post-impressionists’ response to
the local light and landscape. ‘There’s a deep parallel
between our use of colour,’ admits Pardo, pointing
to van Gogh’s later paintings. ‘A lot of it has to do
with the quality of the light that exists here.’
In a region burdened by unemployment, could
the ten containers’ worth of tiles at l’Arlatan have
been sourced locally to support the economy, instead
of being shipped from Mexico? Hofmann explains
that it was impossible to ind a ceramic workshop,
willing and able to do the job, in the area. But a
number of other features – including wooden door
frames, concrete work and handrails – were produced
and assembled locally. ‘For me, it was important
to have a production dialogue between both places,’
says Pardo, who worked closely with the Arles-based
architecture studio of Max Romanet.
While catering to the seasonal waves of tourists
visiting Arles (its summer photography festival,
Les Rencontres d’Arles, brings more than 100,000
visitors), l’Arlatan will also become an essential
component of the Luma Arles art centre. Launched
by Hofmann in 2014, Luma Arles operates primarily
in and around the Parc des Ateliers, out of »ABOVE, THE TILES, EACH ONE
HANDMADE IN A WORKSHOP
IN TICUL, YUCATÁN, CONTINUE
IN THE BATHROOMS084 ∑
Art