Lincoln Pavilion

“I met Pascal Rivet when I was a teenager. He was a student at Quimper art school, where I took a drawing class every Wednesday in the studio where Pascal worked. I was blown over by what he was doing; in those days I had no idea what sculpture was. A few years ago, I gave a lecture in Quimper in which I mentioned how much Pascal Rivet’s work had marked me. By pure chance, Pascal was in the audience. We became friends, and three years ago he asked me to come up with a solution for this full-size sculpture of a Lincoln."
Ronan Bouroullec

Located in Piacé le Radieux – art center dedicated to architecture, design and contemporary art in Piacé, a small village in rural Sarthe that was the subject of an architectural project by Le Corbusier and Norbert Bézard in the 1930s, which was never realised –, Lincoln Pavilion is the new permanent installation designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, produced by local craftsmen and with the support of Mutina.

The project comes about from the necessity of developing an ad hoc exhibition space, where to display a life-size reproduction of a Lincoln Continental realised by artist Pascal Rivet. The designers created a customised showcase featuring some of the Mutina ceramic collections: the frame and the roof – respectively in steel and corrugated sheet – have been painted with the same terracotta shade of Rombini, whose elements decorate the external surface, while the floor has been covered with Pico. There is a ladder at the front of the structure to enable visitors to see inside the sculpture.

During the day, the surrounding landscape is reflected in the large display window. At dusk it lights up and, like a mirage, the pavilion emanates a very particular, cinematic quality.