Lobby (Hyper Tore) is a hollow torus formed by a length of flexible aluminium ducting, laid on a plywood base. The object, equipped with a motor fixed to two rotating discs that seal the duct ends, effects a full revolution, turning in on itself. Animated by perpetual movement that gives an illusion of simultaneous retraction and regeneration, the device moves and gleams, apparently caught in a trap that tends to make it look like an organism on the verge of mutating. The work’s architectural dimension should be considered, on one hand, in terms of the torus, an element that in architecture denotes a semi- cylindrical moulding round the base of a column or pillar; and, on the other hand The work’s architectural dimension should be considered, on one hand, in terms of the torus, an element that in architecture denotes a semi- cylindrical moulding round the base of a column or pillar; and, on the other hand, with regard to the meaning conferred by the work’s title. The word lobby describes an entrance hall or corridor -in any case, a transitory place. As a reduced-model prototype of a changeover, Lobby (Hyper Tore), by dint of its hypnotic character, could well be an invitation to enter an enigmatic subterranean world figuratively expressed by the dizzying, yawning gap of the torus: a fake vortex with high power of attraction.

Text by Anne Lou Vicente, LA GALERIE, Noisy le Sec, 2008

View of the exhibition at le CCC, Tours © François Fernandez