Rooted in the tradition of the ephemeral art, evoking the Native Americans’ Sand Paintings, the Tibetan mandalas or Constantino Nivola and Le Corbusier’s Sand Castings, Archisable is first and foremost a poetical project, born two years ago on Deauville’s beach. Invited by Tina Dassault, 26 renowned architects have, one after the other, expressed themselves in front of elements. For every one of them, it has been the occasion to reconnect to the builder’s immemorial gestures, through spontaneous constructions, far from the comfort of their offices and their computers. The publication and the exhibition present a selection of photographs by Michel Tréhet, only traces of those ephemeral structures that vanish with the tide, in front of which the eye loses every reference point. By the magic of the standpoint, the sandcastles appear as mighty monuments. “The focus, the very close-up shot, the high- and the low-angle shot, penetrate to explore virgin universes. The loss of scale arises the stunning, and brings to light the barely-visible” (Tina Dassault)

The architects that played the game
Paul Andreu, France, Marc Baranni, France, Michel Cantal-Dupart, France, Dominique Châtelet, France, Marie-Hélène Contal, France, Jérôme Damiens, France, Dinah Diwan, United States, Patrice Doat, France, Frédéric Druot, France, Anne Feenstra, Netherlands, Antoine Grumbach, France, Franck Hammoutène, France, Anne Heringer et Marc Rauch, Germany, Dominique Jakob et Brendan McFarlan, France, Yann Kersalé, France, Didi Pei, United States, Jana Revedin, Austria, Nathalie Sabatier, France, Léna Soffer, France, Roger Taillibert, France, Isabelle Taourel, France, Youssef Tohmé, Lebanon, Bernard Vaudeville, France, Corinne Vezzoni, France.