Ghost Of Trianon

Proposal for pavillion/sculpture, print on glass. 2008

On 10 August 1901 two English academics, Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain claimed to have experienced a time slip during a visit to the Petit Trianon (at The Palace of Versailles), during which they saw Marie Antoinette as well as many other people of the same period.

I propose a shelter which is itself a kind of ghost- a ghost of Le Petit Trianon, the house given to Marie Antoinette by Louis XVI. The shelter will be a piece of simple achitecture and an unfolding of photographs into an architectural form.

Viewers of the sculpture willl be able to walk inside it, around it and in doing so experience a sort of time and space slip. The structure with its photographs of the interior of Le Petit Trianon will offer a sort of ghostly half-life experience of being in the actual space, a sort of walk-in mirage.

The shelter will provide a glamorous, oppulent resting space for people walking in nature or in an urban setting. They will be able to surround themselves with paintings, frescoes and fine antique furniture, whilst being in contrasting surroundings.