Le labyrinthe aux échelles - Ladderlabyrinth

Constant Nieuwenhuys, co-founder of the CoBrA group in the late forties, stopped painting in de mid-fifties to concentrate on the question of "construction". He spent some time in London in 1952, moving around a lot and becoming fascinated by the intricacies of urban form. In 1956, he started working on a visionary architectural proposal for a future society: New Babylon. A year later he became a founding member of the Situationist International. He played a key role in their experiments until his resignation in 1960. The Situationist International was a political and artistic group. Their central philosophy was the creation of situations defined by them as 'a moment of life, concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organisation of a unitary environment and a game of events'. They were highly critical of the developing capitalist world which surrounded them, and took a real distaste to the promotion of consumer goods and "good life" which these products promise. Starting off as a predominantly artistic group producing the magazine Internationale Situationiste, the group was mainly centered on the Parisian Left Bank, although other chapters formed in several other countries.
Constant's New Babylon envisages a formulation for the new man, a better social place and a new way of living in a community, combining the critique of modern architecture with the deployment of the latest technical developments. The artist elaborated his ideas in series of models, sketches, etchings and collages, as well as in manifestos, essays and lectures.
Constant became an "architect" and insisted that that the traditional arts would be displaced by a collective form of creativity. Keywords for New Babylon were automation and space. In New Babylon one sees a covered city, with huge labyrinths floating above the ground on tall columns, where vehicular traffic rushes underneath. All forms of mobility are carried and the structure of the city itself will be mobile and lacks a clear identity. Social life becomes architectural play in Constant's view. A new architecture, a new city, calls for new media of representation. Due to his lectures, manifestos and interviews, his ideas were widely published in the international press in the 1960s and Constant attained a prominent position in the world of experimental architecture. Until 1974 Constant developed his ideas, acting in the belief that artists had the task to combine new techniques with the complex activity of urbanism. In his words 'machine work offers unheard-off possibilities for creation, and those who are able to place these possibilities at the service of daring imagination will be my creators of tomorrow' (M. Wigely, Constant's New Babylon. The hyper-architecture of desire, Rotterdam 1998, p. 27). In Constant's own words, he created 'a New World, where surprise and pleasure of the eyes mingle with innumerable questions, insights and speculations' (ibid, p. 5).
Le labyrinthe aux échelles can be considered one of the highlights of Constant's creative carrier. After realizing in the 1960s a great series of three dimensional architectural models, Constant restarted painting in 1969. He realized that painting would be the best way to represent his new world vision and not the models. One sees a covered city, with huge labyrinths float above the ground on tall columns and ladders. Transparent paint layers, opposed by a strident but sensitive line play. Le labyrinthe aux échelles challenges the beholder. There is an intriguing contradiction in the work; the emptiness of the space opposed to the suggested architectural forms; the space seems threatening, there is no contact between the human forms, but the languages is playful and humorous.