Retro futur

RETRO FUTUR is an artistic installation that explores the creative process of tomorrow using the tools of yesterday, using the example of Franklin Azzi's work as an architect.

The immersive installation, RETRO FUTUR, presents the everyday life of an architect through a sleek, modular digital table in black-lacquered metal. It displays a series of screens showing the basic and traditional tools of the trade (square, rotring, tracing paper, light table, etc.) as well as the day-to-day materials needed to develop a project: models, materials, sketches, etc. Still and moving images scroll by, showing the manual gestures of the architect's work in relation to the agency's latest projects.

A hoop made of strips of felt, a product diverted from industry, isolates the object from the rest of the exhibition. As Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) pointed out, felt is a wonderful natural material that conserves heat, a source of energy that was a real driver of creativity for the German artist. The resulting space is lined entirely with felt, including the ceiling, creating an acoustic bubble conducive to concentration. The slatted curtain format invites visitors to move freely in and out of the installation. Felt is a durable, natural material, made in France (by Le Feutre), which gives a feeling of intimacy and serenity.

The installation is resolutely in line with the trend towards retro-futurism* in the creative arts (design, architecture, cinema, literature, fashion, etc.), which is one of the sources of inspiration for the agency's overall approach. It is characterised by a mix of imagery in which progress and science fiction are imagined in the past, with the prospect that all things futuristic in the present will, over time, become retro-futuristic.

Franklin Azzi's architectural ambition is never meant to be decorative, as in the iconic film Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982), which places the issue of identity at the centre of the questioning constructed by the work, eventually becoming a metaphysical quest, questioning the notion of humanity.

*The word ‘retrofuturism’ was invented by the artist and editor Lloyd Dunn in 1983, according to the art magazine Retrofuturism, which was published from 1988 to 1993.