Image courtesy of Felice Varini

Optical illusion on roof of Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation by Felice Varini

Swiss artist Felice Varini has used brightly coloured paintwork to transform the rooftop of Le Corbusier’s iconic Unité d’Habitation in Marseille into a huge optical illusion.Varini added sections of red and yellow paintwork to the concrete blocks that make up the roof terrace of Le Corbusier’s famous housing scheme. These appear to connect when viewed from certain angles.

Image courtesy of Felice Varini

The artist, who specialises in site-specific perspective artworks, created the piece for the MAMO arts centre that now occupies the building’s roof. The installation uses the concrete walls of the building as a giant canvas and spans the whole terrace of the centre.

Image courtesy of Felice Varini

The fragments of red and yellow paintwork align from three vantage points on the terrace to complete geometric patterns.One view shows a pair of red scalene triangles with circular cut outs. Another creates a circular motif, and the third shows a series of overlapping lines. When the viewer leaves each viewpoint, the images fragment.

more. varini.org