Cité Internationale des Arts

Scope of activities: technical development, manufacture and installation

The Cité internationale des arts of Paris is located in the Marais, opposite the Saint-Louis island. It is one of the main residences for artists in Europe. Each year, it welcomes hundreds of artists from all over the world and working in all disciplines.

The building, built in the 1960s, no longer had any unified signage. This situation posed a problem for this site, which was at the same time an exhibition and conference venue, but also a home for artists from all over the worl, speaking dozens of different languages. The Cité therefore decided to call on the Wanja Ledowski studio to create original signage to match the premises and its occupants.

The identity elements of this new signage consist of cut-out aluminum letters fixed on lacquered grids, framed by a red aluminum profile, also lacquered, all tensioned on cables in different contexts.

The simplicity of this concept however presented technical complexities, in particular the precision of the fixing of the letters on grids according to a precise layout, the ability to assemble these different elements without visible fixings etc.
The main difficulty lay in the implementation of these elements: it was necessary to succeed in tensioning the cables enough so that the weight of the frames did not come to bend the whole.

The installation of the three reception frames, suspended above the staircase leading to the auditorium, was particularly technical because of the extremely restricted access to the ceiling area on which they had to be hung.

These emblematic elements of tailor-made signage were complemented by more classic elements such as lacquered and screen-printed aluminum sheets, tarpaulin kakemonos, adhesives, etc.

Client
Cité internationale des arts

Designer / Project manager
Studio Wanja Ledowski

Technical characteristics
Letters cut out of aluminum fixed on lacquered grids, lacquered and screen-printed aluminum sheets, tarpaulin kakemonos, adhesives; construction site in occupied site

Photographs
Julie BeYou