In the 1970’s architects Renzo Piano

RENZO PIANO
and Richard Rogers, both unknown at
the time, collaborated and erected
one of the most famous and radical
buildings of our time, Centre Georg-
es Pompidou. The cultural center in
Paris, France turned our world inside
out, literally. It all began with Georges
Pompidou, President of France from
1969 to 1974, who wanted to construct
a cultural center in Paris that would
Awards attract visitors and be a monumental
aspect of the city. Receiving more
than 150 million visitors since is com-
Pritzker Architecture Prize
pletion thirty three years ago, there
RIBA Gold Medal
is no doubt that Pompidou’s vision
Sonning Prize
became a successful reality.
AIA Gold Medal
Kyoto Prize
The skeleton itself engulfs the building from its
exterior, showing all of the different mechanical
and structure systems not only so that they
"Architecture is a serious business being both could be understood but also to maximize the
Art and a Service" interior space without interruptions.
The different systems on the exterior of the
building are painted different colors to distin-
guish their different roles. The structure and
largest ventilation components were painted
white, stairs and elevator structures were
painted a silver gray, ventilation was painted
blue, plumbing and fire control piping painted
green, the electrical elements are yellow and
One of the most renowned architects of the contem- orange, and the elevator motor rooms and
porary era, Renzo Piano was born in Genoa in 1937 shafts, or the elements that allow for move-
into a family of builders. He obtained his secondary ment throughout the building, are painted red.
school diploma in classical studies and then earned
a degree in Architecture from Milan Polytechnic in
1964.

POMPIDOU
Following his university studies, he gained experience
in Philadelphia and London, and the London experi-
ence in particular became a determining factor in his
professional development, as Jean Prouvé assigned
him the role of president of the project commission
for the Centre Georges Pompidou. CENTRE PARIS
 ANTONY
GORMLEY
Antony Gormley is widely acclaimed for his sculp-
tures, installations and public artworks that inves-
tigate the relationship of the human body to space.
His work has developed the potential opened up
by sculpture since the 1960s through a critical
engagement with both his own body and those of
others in a way that confronts fundamental ques-
tions of where human being stands in relation to
nature and the cosmos. Gormley continually tries
to identify the space of art as a place of becoming
in which new behaviors, thoughts and feelings can
arise.
Awards
Turner Prize (1994)
South Bank Prize for Visual Art (1999)
Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture (2007)
Obayashi Prize (2012)
Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture (2013)
Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture
(2015)
LOOK II
To commemorate Mayflower 400 and the
opening of The Box, his sculpture LOOK
II is permanently installed on West Hoe
Pier and forms part of the inaugural
contemporary art exhibition, Making It.
The site in Plymouth where Sir Francis
Chichester landed in 1967 as the first
and fastest person to sail single-handed
around the world by the clipper route in
the Gipsy Moth.
LOOK II is a figure made from 22 blocks
in one cast iron form, stacked like a house
of cards but also substantial, rather like
the stones of Stonehenge. This work aims
to evoke the yearning to travel across the
horizon in order to establish a new life in
another place.
Though singular, the work refers to the
collective body and our shared, built
environment. It is the artist’s intention to
transmit our old-world admiration for
the skyscrapers of New York while linking
them to our megalithic past.
Migration is integral to the evolution of
our species and LOOK II expresses the
tensions between going and staying as well
as the twin human desires of making roots
and conversely, the yearning for adven-
ture and a life free from the constraints of
history.