Mirad’Or : public art gallery and Belvededere

“ Le Pavillon d’or ( Mirad’or) a une forme très particulière, créant une relation formidable avec le paysage, la lumière et l’eau” .(Daniel Buren)

 Mirad’Or is a complex project, in the sense that the process for its realization was very long and somewhat difficult. It’s a project whitout “literature,” it is not easily placed in a specific architectural typology. The original idea was to create a small exhibition pavilion  in the urban space, in the main square of Pisogne. It was certainly a brilliant idea and fascinating in itself, especially when referring to a small town such as Pisogne. Our doubts about this program were  the awareness that pavilion would risk being closed for most of the year: it is not a question of the size of the space, it is more a question of a rigid, mono-oriented functional program.  After several site visit, we have change our strategy and built “on the water” this public public belvedere available for contemporary art installations and exhibitions. It is not easy to define exactly what the Mirad’Or is: an extension of the lakefront, an exhibition pavilion, a belvedere, the layering of the old washhouse…..In fact it is all these things together, an architecture, public , that allows us to bring a contemporary look ( the art) inside the daily experience of the collective space. Never as in this difficult and complicated period have we reconsidered the importance of public space in our cities, how this space can be used in completely different, sometimes even conflicting ways: a square can be a stage, a monumental space, an urban setting, a place for sports or a space for protest. What surprises us is that a small town like Pisogne had the audacity to create this unique building. Years ago we designed the 31st floor of the Pirelli skyscraper: the most surprising thing was Giò Ponti’s idea of the Belvedere as a kind of reward to the city of the public space taken away from the building. Mirad’Or is a Belvedere even when no exhibitions are set up, and a new offering of open and available public space delivered to the community. In our intentions, Mirad’Or is above all a place of INDUGE. It is a space in which to find a time to look: an installation, a work of art, the landscape itself.

We have always been fascinated by the light of this lake, a silvery light dilated by water. The transitions between sky and lake are always extremely subtle, dissolving. The building is made of a wooden structure, Xlam, with a “skin” of white back-lacquered extra-clear glass, a necessary “device” for this kind of white cloud to be there, between the sky and the lake.

The Mirad’Or has an “inside” and an “outside,” very different but inseparable from each other. This white “cloud” that seems to rest on the water, reproducing the profiles of the mountains in the background, from the inside suggests a possible landscape, without ever obstructing the view from the lakefront.

The installations that will follow one another will always be invited to this continuous dialogue between the public space and the landscape, between the intimate dimension and the open view: in this sense, the Mirad’Or is also a container that will be modified by its contents, by the works that will be installed and by the visitors who will enter it.