Memento, 2024. Candele, cera. Photo credit: Atelier Pampa
Serretta Grumello
Memento is a network of symbols that questions the lightness of Life, and more specifically that of Humanity; of its incoherence and fragility. A Vanity in itself, in the form of architectural candles. The candle, whether mundane or spiritual, is an evanescent object of consumption, close to transmutation. It opens the door to a reverie and reflection that transcends scales and questions time and matter. Between the votive candle that makes visible the breaths of a desire in full ascension, the candle that illuminates the fleetingness of a convivial moment or the dreams of ‘the dreamer of flame’ (1), these wax sculptures transformed into a lapidary collection are fragments of time flowing irresistibly. They share Humanity's illusion of the hourglass; that of controlling time by measuring it. "The flame is an hourglass that flows upwards. Lighter than crumbling sand [...]" (1). She measures the duration that flies by, and materialises the lightness of time and existence. It becomes; depending on the lightness of the observer, a memento mori or a memento vivere. Sic transit gloria mundi.*
(1) Gaston Bachelard, 'La flamme d'une chandelle', Éditions Quadrige, 1961, pp. 24-25
* Thus passes the glory of the world.
Philippine Aprile Mandillon / Photo credit: Atelier Pampa
A French interior architect and designer, in 2009 she started working on the conservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage at INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage), adopting a strong social approach. Since then, she has worked on numerous occasions in India and France on historical and/or cultural buildings, developing a design method based on a global and transdisciplinary vision of contexts, capable of integrating the complexity of existing spaces, both in terms of scale and uses. A professor at the Camondo School and lecturer at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-Val de Seine, in 2017 she co-founded the Atelier PAMPA, a design and historical diagnostics studio born out of the encounter between an interior designer and an architectural historian, which places the question of meaning, contexts and culture at the heart of the project.